Economic freedom in an unfree world

The Heritage Foundation, an American think-tank, released its list of countries ranked in order of economic freedom. Hong Kong topped the list as the freest, followed by Singapore, Bahrain, New Zealand (?), Switzerland, and, in sixth place, the United States.

Sixth place is pretty lame for a country that claims to be the land of the free, if you ask me.

Hong Kong seems to be the land of the going downhill, though, and its first place billing is pretty much a statistical fluke. The government recently started monkeying around with the stock market, though these shenanigans occurred too late to effect its ranking for the year. Next time around, however, it looks like Singapore will be numero uno.

As for our friends up north, Japan made 12th on the list, tied with (ready for this?) the Czech Republic (a former commie stronghold).

South Korea came in number 28, tied with Kuwait.

The Philippines came it at 48, tied with several other countries, including Namibia and Botswana. That’s three rankings less free than Uruguay. That’s 20 rankings less than Thailand. Unless you’re bullish on Botswana, you can safely rule out any prospect of a boom in the Philippine economy in the foreseeable future.

As for the all-time worst countries, Cuba and North Korea share that dubious distinction.

I didn’t see the Northern Mariana Islands on the list, but I’d like to know how we would rank. Would we come in more free, or less free, than the United States? One thing’s for sure; we’re a lot less prosperous. Economic output per person in the Commonwealth (which, of course, is tied to income per person) is only one-third the level as it is in the states. Since output is a strong function of freedom, a lower output would logically indicate a lower degree of freedom, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the CNMI is a less free place than the states.

I’m going to ask the Heritage Foundation to include the CNMI in its next round of studies. Maybe we can get a betting pool going here as to where we’ll place if we are, indeed, included in the study. Do you think we’d make the top 10? I do. How would we rank compared to the United States?

When you consider that the top five countries on the list are tiny countries with tiny populations, you realize that economic freedom isn’t a very popular proposition. Indeed, most people don’t want it, and most don’t have it. Those who do value it find themselves a despised minority, and they often have to leave their native lands and find freer circumstances. The productive, the ambitious, and the inspired will always need to have fleet feet if they want to make the most out of life.

It’s hard to find freedom in an unfree world.