That’s right folks. The United States, home of capitalism and freedom barely made the top 10 in the 18th annual Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom . Or as I like to call it, The Fiscon Index, because it tracks all of the issues that Fiscal Conservatives care about.
We’re Number Ten
America has slid to tenth place on the Index of Economic Freedom.According to the 18th annual Index of Economic Freedom, released Thursday by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong enjoys the earth’s freest economy. The Chinese Special Administrative Region invariably has topped this list since it began in 1995. No. 2 Singapore leads Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Chile, Mauritius, and Ireland. Agnostic on political freedom, the Index evaluates fiscal discipline, taxes, regulations, monetary policy, rule of law, corruption, and other measures of economic liberty.
Because the United States keeps slipping in those areas, America has slid from No. 9in 2011 to tenth place today. Indeed, this is the fourth consecutive year in which the U.S. fell a notch. Out of a perfect score of 100, America declined 1.5 points to 76.3. Denmark, No. 11, scored 76.2.
“As recently as 2008, the United States was ranked 7th, rated 81, and considered a ‘free’ economy,” Heritage notes. “Today, it is ‘mostly free’ — the runner-up category.”
You can visualize the data here and makes some graphs fro comparison
The Index’s authors — Amb. Terry Miller, Kim Holmes, and Ed Feulner, all at Heritage — lament that in America, “recent government interventions have eroded limits on government, and public spending by all levels of government now exceeds one-third of total domestic output. The regulatory burden on business continues to increase rapidly, and heightened uncertainty further increases regulations’ negative impact. Fading confidence in the government’s determination to promote or even sustain open markets has discouraged entrepreneurship and dynamic investment within the private sector.”
U.S. tax-and-spend scores are appalling: Among 179 countries surveyed, America is No. 127 in government spending and No. 133 in fiscal freedom, far below average on both counts. The U.S. suffers an “overall tax burden amounting to 24 percent of total domestic income,” the Index states. “Government expenditures have grown to 42.2 percent of GDP, and the budget deficit is close to 10 percent of GDP. Total public debt is now larger than the size of the economy.” Such boulders bow American shoulders.
Meanwhile, U.S. businesspeople moan beneath the regulatory rubble. “Over 70 new major regulations have been imposed since early 2009, with annual costs of more than $38 billion,” the Index observes. “There were only six major deregulatory actions during that time, with reported savings of just $1.5 billion.”
Another problem: “Corruption is a growing concern as the cronyism and economic rent-seeking associated with the growth of government have undermined institutional integrity,” the Index declares. For Freedom from Corruption, the U.S. is ranked No. 22; approximating Transparency International’s finding that America is the earth’s 24th most honest country.
What fuels suspicions of American shadiness? Consider Big Labor’s waivers from Obamacare and the administration’s granting union payouts ahead of the contractually protected claims of Chrysler’s and General Motors’ secured bondholders.
From what I can see from looking at the data, this fall almost out of the top 10 is driven by President Obama’s policies alone. There is no way to blame this on President Bush. We have fallen from mostly free to the runner-up category. This is an example of why we have to roll back government spending and regulations, not just leave what is in place alone. This is what drives the TEA Party and the Fiscal Conservatives, we do not want to be also-rans in a game that we should win every year.
No way to pay for social security without producing wealth.
Chile is #7.
I seriously keep considering singapore. I’ve visited there three times now and have spent nearly a year there over the last 10 years in total. Nice place, it can be a bit hard with some folks. Not everyone speaks english, but they can read it.
Canada as a whole ranks well, but the province of Quebec does very poorly: “Fraser Institute’s latest index of economic freedom – which tracks government size, taxation and labour flexibility – puts Quebec in 58th place of 60 jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada.”
After looking at the individual stats cited in the article, I find it hard to believe that the US made it into the Top Ten at all.
Ironic that a “Special Administrative Region” of a Dirty F’in Communist country is listed as the Most Free, economically speaking.
Macker wrote:
the chinese are no more communist than we are monarchist.
they are mercantilist if anything
Moe Katz wrote:
You act like this is surprising. Quebec has it’s own language gestapo to ensure that every little detail of anti-english regulation is crushed. That doesn’t even touch on the general anti-anglophone bigotry there either.
@ Mashiki:
I live here – in Quebec City – but this is worse than I had even suspected.
This seems to be a sticky thread, didn’t know they had such things here.
Moe Katz wrote:
we havent updated with a new ‘special report’…lazy, i guess.
but this is a good one for all to digest.
Mashiki wrote:
You should try Australia #3 or New Zealand #4.
Oz has good very well paying jobs in the mining and transport industry. New Zealand has jobs in high tech agriculture and IT and is a LOT greener than Oz
WE also speak English and are like a strange clone of the US without a lot of the BS! LOL