Economic Freedom In 60 Seconds

I've been working all day, helping the guys at my largest warehouse get some rush orders moving out to one of the world's largest retailers. 

The drivers of these "hot-shot" vans are, without exception so far, immigrants.  They're from The Ukraine, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Albania and Russia (so far).  All of them are in the process of buying their own van, if they haven't so far.  The ones I've asked have said that they want to start their own trucking companies. The only exceptions are the older guys, and they want to help their sons start trucking companies.  

I don't think people are that ambitious when they move to, say, Cuba.  Or even Sweden, which has a relatively high level of freedom.  People come to the USA to make stuff happen. 

Here's something from the Charles Koch Foundation called "Economic Freedom In 60 Seconds".  I love it, love it, love it.  If you get a chance, watch it on Youtube and read the comments.  It has the Statists in a mad, frothing rage.  You know, "How can the Koch brothers say these things when 25% of Americans are in the lowest quartile, and only one American out of a hundred gets to be in the Top One Percent, and blah blah blah". But not a word to contradict the video.  

Enjoy. 

Australia - #1 in happiness, #3 in freedom

CNN reports that Australia is the happiest country in the industrialized world. 

Paris (CNN) -- Australia has been named the world's happiest industrialized nation for the third year running, based on criteria including satisfaction, work-life balance, income and housing, a survey released Tuesday has found.


The so-called "lucky country" beat Sweden and Canada to take the top spot in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Better Life Index.

Good for them. 
Any time a nations are ranked in anything that's good, happy, fun, or awesome in general, I compare those rankings to The Heritage Foundation's Freedom Index.  It turns out that Australia is ranked #3 in overall freedom. 

So what about all the other happy-happy fun-fun nations?  Any chance that Cuba or North Korea or Iran made the cut?  No. 

Here are the Top Ten Happy Nations, along with their rankings in the Freedom Index.  Needless to say, this is a reassuring comparison for liberty-lovers. 

#1 Australia - #3 in freedom
#2 Sweden - #18 in freedom
#3 Canada - #6 in freedom
#4 Norway - #31 in freedom
#5 Switzerland - #5 in freedom
#6 U.S. - #10 in freedom
#7 Denmark - #9 in freedom
#8 Netherlands - #17 in freedom
#9 Iceland - #23 in freedom
#10 United Kingdom - #14 in freedom

The correlation is slightly askew because of the absence of happiness in the Asian Tiger economies - Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.  I suspect it's a reporting error.  (I've spent about 6 months over there, for what it's worth.)  Claiming to be "happy" in some Asian cultures is almost like claiming to be "rich" or "handsome".

Anyway, the survey shows that if you want people to be happy, leave them alone. 

What would it take to change your mind?

Patrick Crozier over at Samizdata asks the great philosophical question "What would it take to change your mind?" 
In the link, Mr. Crozier uses the example of Global Warming.  He believes that Anthropogenic Global Warming isn't falsifiable, as there is no weather condition that isn't occasionally used as proof of AGW.  Therefore, it is a religious belief, rather than a rational one.  He begins his post as follows....   

In the Telegraph, Tom Chivers asks: what would it take to change your mind? It's a good question; I'm forever using it in imagined arguments with socialists. It's good because it helps distinguish beliefs that are rational from those that are religious. If you can answer it without being facetious or coming up with an impossible and improbable test then your beliefs are rational. If not, they're religious. It's a question I ask myself from time to time, as in: what would convince me that freedom is wrong?

So what would it take for me to change my mind about freedom and libertarianism?

Here's what would be required for me to change my mind.  See if this works, if it is falsifiable, if it is non-facetious, and if it is rational.

The Heritage Foundation has long published The Index Of Economic Freedom.  They rank every nation by a standard of Limitied Government (low government spending and high fiscal freedom), Rule Of Law (property rights and freedom from corruption), Regulatory Efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, and monetary freedom), and Open Markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, and financial freedom). 

No nation is perfect.  But the citizens of Hong Kong enjoy much more freedom than those of North Korea. 
 
Not every nation is starting from the same baseline.  The U.S. has enjoyed about four centuries of basic respect for British Common Law.  That helps.  Other places have a government and a citizenry who thumb their noses at any contracts or agreements, and the entire nation is run on bribery. 

China's airport have concession stands where helpful Sherpas will set up your new business in three days.  Try that in France.  You'll die waiting. 

Here's a link to see the ranking of all nations by their relative levels of freedom.  Write down the places that interest you.   

Now, check this out....

The Legatum Institute puts out a World Prosperity Index.  In addition to their overall prosperity rank, the nations are judged by their education systems, safety and security, health, and social capital. 

The nations of the world don't have an exact correlation between freedom (liberty) and prosperity.  But it's close.  Of the top 10 nations in the Freedom Index, there are 5 who make the top 10 in the Prosperity Index.  Find me a correlation like that on every pro football Sunday afternoon, and I'll be a rich man by December. 

Hong Kong, Singapore and Chile are all in the Top 10 of the Freedom Index, but not the Prosperity Index.  But these were all third world hellholes within my lifetime.  Then the great Milton Friedman visited them.  They're coming off a lower baseline than, say Norway, Denmark and Finland, but does anyone doubt that they're going to be more prosperous places than the Scandinavia within 20 years? 

I believe that the relationship I see between prosperity and freedom is rational, falsifiable, and non-religious (regardless of how many people accuse me of swapping extreme Baptist fanaticism with extreme libertarian fanaticism). 

I'll change my mind about libertarianism when the Heritage Freedom Index and the Legatum Prosperity Index no longer have a positive correlation. 

So....what would it take for you to change your mind about the benefits of Obama's Stimulus Package?