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Live Free or Die? December 10, 2010

Posted by David in Economics, Politics.
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I have long been fascinated by indices that compare different countries, regions, states or cities. In other words, I like to be able to compare stuff. But I’m especially fascinated by indices of various sorts of freedom, probably because I think that freedom is more important than anything else (which in my case does not mean that I would rather die than be unfree, although it does imply that I would consider death and being forced to live life as a North Korean as approximately equivalent).

When I think about freedom, I tend to think in terms of property rights. To be more free means that you have greater use, exclusion, income, and transfer rights over your person and property. This implies that all freedoms are basically property rights, which kind of implies that it’s nonsensical to distinguish between economic and other freedoms. All freedoms are economic, including so-called “non-economic” freedoms as your right to say and write whatever is on your mind, your right to produce, buy or sell drugs and your right to gamble away your savings. My hunch is that what counts as “economic freedom” is simply those freedoms that most self-described conservatives like, while whatever does not count as an “economic freedom” happens to coincide with what most conservatives don’t like (drugs, gay marriage, prostitution, immigration, gambling, unconventional lifestyles etc.).

I was therefore pleasantly surprised that the Mercatus Center has published an “overall freedom index” for the 50 American states. The weights of that index look like this:

According to this index, relative freedom is not limited to low taxes, low government spending and flexible labor and land markets. It also implies the right to use and privately buy or sell a variety of controversial goods and services such as gambling services, guns, education, sex, and drugs as well as the right to refuse to use seat belts, motorcycle helmets etc.

So what state offers the greatest overall freedom (i.e. the most comprehensive set of private property rights) to residents? It happens to be the “live free or die” state: New Hampshire, with Colorado and South Dakota as runners up. The worst (least free) states are New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Some states combine high levels of “personal freedom” with low levels of “economic freedom” and vice versa. For example, Alaska is the best state in terms of “personal freedom,” but the 2nd worst on fiscal policy. Maine is the 2nd best state on “personal freedom,” but the worst state as regards “regulatory policy.” In contrast, Georgia ranks 6th on “economic freedom,” but 42nd on “personal freedom.” And New York? 50th on fiscal policy, 44th on regulatory policy, and 48th on “personal freedom.”

Only in America? February 22, 2009

Posted by David in Politics, The Social Sciences.
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“Only in America” is a book by Matt Frei that I picked up at an airport, not because a recognition heuristic but because I’m a news junkie as long as the news is about politics and elections; the book seemed to be about American politics. It turned out to be both about US politics and American society, but unfortunately it seems to have been written for people who are more ignorant of these things than I am. Matt Frei is a BBC correspondent based in Washington, and as such he fulfills my prejudices about journalists: they are good and witty writers with superficial knowledge about a lot of things.

When Frei is describing what he thinks is weird about America, I couldn’t help but think that he is also inadvertently describing what’s weird about Europe and Britain (Frei was born in Germany but grew up in Britain).  For example, what he describes as Americans’ obsession with state-of-the-art bathrooms made me think of the sorry state of British plumbing as I experienced it while living there in the early nineties. When he writes “Americans believe, Europeans doubt,” I was thinking that American faith is just more obvious to Europeans because they believe in different things. Frei claims that Americans in general believe in God and the US Constitution while Europeans are skeptical. But one could also turn the argument around and say that Europeans believe in the Welfare State and Government while Americans are skeptical. Given the respective track records, maybe one should be more astounded by the faith of Europeans. I know I’m ideologically biased, but a largely unexamined faith in the welfare state (which is shared by 90% or so of European voters) seems to be the main reason that governments administer about half of the economy in most European countries. It doesn’t seem to matter whether a government calls itself  ”socialist,” “christian democrat” or “conservative.”

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