I’m, I’m …. speechless. I don’t know if the Libertarian Cato Institute intended an own goal or not, but they’ve published a preliminary report entitled The Human Freedom Index — A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom.
If you’re not familiar with the Cato Institute, they were founded in 1974 as the Charles Koch Foundation (yes, one of the Koch brothers). They are definitely not going to vote for Bernie Sanders. The Cato Institute is basically your typical “let the rich have their way” Libertarians (and overwhelmingly white males, per standard Libertarian demographics).
So back to “The Human Freedom Index”. What metrics do they use to define freedom? They claim to use 76 distinct indicators including:
- Rule of Law
- Security and Safety
- Movement
- Religion
- Association, Assembly, and Civil Society
- Expression
- Relationships
- Size of Government
- Legal System and Property Rights
- Access to Sound Money
- Freedom to Trade Internationally
- Regulation of Credit, Labor, and Business
Now, it’s no surprise to anyone paying attention to world news that the US isn’t the most free country out there. More than half of our students are in poverty, income inequality is ridiculous, and the Republican presidential candidates seem to be trying to outdo each other in financial gifts to the wealthy.
But freedom! Freedom. We gots our freedom, damn it!
Well, according to the Cato Institute, the freest countries (remember: personal, civil, and economic!) in the world are:
- Hong Kong
- Switzerland
- Finland
- Denmark
- New Zealand
- Canada
- Australia
- Ireland
- United Kingdom
- Sweden
Notice anything interesting about that list, aside from the absence of the US? Lots of social democracies there! In fact, the US barely makes it in 20th place, behind several other social democracies.
I would like to personally thank the Cato Institute for pointing out where real freedom lies.