Economic Freedom is Key for High Standards of Living

Apr 28
07:55

2008

Charles Nash

Charles Nash

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Countries that follow the ideals of economic freedom end up having a population with higher standards of living and prosperity.

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Economic freedom is the most important aspect of a countries social system for people's standards of living. Often people talk about limiting business and allowing government to provide more services. These people are wrong,Economic Freedom is Key for High Standards of Living Articles and lack the basic understands of economics that drive up the standards of living of all people.

Communists and socialists often claim that there are huge class differences in the United States and other free economic countries, but I don't see it. If you goto some restricted economic country, for example in Africa, you could pick out on the street, who is poor and rich. It's easy. Goto the United States, it's difficult. You could see someone walking down the street talking on a cell phone that makes minimum wage and another person walking down the street with a cell phone, wearing the same clothes that makes $80,000 a year.The Fraser Institute puts a report each year for their Free The World project. They aim to show that countries that give economic freedom have higher standards of living.

Economic freedom is...

  • Personal Choice
  • Voluntary exchange coordinated by markets
  • Freedom to enter and compete in markets
  • Protection of persons and property from aggressions by others
*As defined by their economic report for 2007.

Top Countries of 2007 (marked out of 10)

  • Hong Kong(8.9)
  • Singapore(8.8)
  • New Zealand(8.5)
  • Switzerland(8.3)
  • Canada(8.1)
  • United Kingdom(8.1)
  • United States(8.1)
  • Estonia(8.0)
  • Australia(7.9)
  • Ireland(7.9)

Worst Countries of 2007 (marked out of 10)

  • Zimbabwa(2.9)
  • Myanmar(3.8)
  • The Democratic Republic of the Congo(4.0)
  • Angola(4.2)
  • The Republic of the Congo(4.3)
  • Central Africa Republic(4.6)
  • Venezuela(4.9)
  • Burundi(5.0)
  • Chad(5.1)
  • Niger(5.1)

Judging by the list of countries you see here, you can tell that being a free person in the economy is essential to having prosperity. The underlining principals are independent of location and natural resources. Hong Kong, for example has no natural resources besides fish. It is in close proximity of Myanmar, which happens to be a military dictatorship. By having a social system of capitalism that recognizes individual and economic freedom people can increase their standards of living.