Julie Borowski
FreedomWorks
1/13/2011
Back when I was young in the 1990’s, I remember people often using the phrase “it’s a free country!” But as the years passed, that line became less commonly used. In recent years, I cannot recall one person using this old expression. This seems to be a sign that a great number of Americans are realizing that their freedoms are slipping away. So just how free is America today?
The newly released Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal’s Index of Economic Freedom 2010 rates countries based on ten components of economic freedom. This year, the United States slipped to the ninth freest country in the world. The researchers have included the United States in the “mostly free” category. According to the study, the United States is behind the countries of Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Ireland and Denmark. We’ve become less free since the 1990’s. In the first annual Index of Economic Freedom in 1995, the United States was the fourth freest country in the world.
This should be a huge warning sign. If current trends continue, the United States may not be listed in the top 10 freest countries in future years. The study assigned the United States a 77.8 out of 100 rating based on components such as property rights, business freedom, government spending, and trade freedom. The Heritage/Wall Street Journal study defines economic freedom as “the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state.”…
…Freedom promotes wealth and prosperity…
Read the entire article at FreedomWorks.
