31 Replies to “From The Fraser Institute”

  2. US economy is pretty free.
    As long as you’re friends with the guys in power, there’s plenty of corporate welfare free money for everybody.

  3. I keep looking, but can’t see that great leftist victory of Zimbabwe for Collectivism, on this list?

  4. This report is garbage. The asymtope appears to be 7.0, therefore it is meaningless unless it is a logarithmic scale

  5. How can countries that restrict women’s right to start and run a business rank in the top 20? eg Bahrain where “The most pressing issue for many Bahraini women is the lack of a unified family law or Personal Status Law as it is known, leaving matters of divorce and child custody to the discretion of Sharia judges, who have been criticised for a lack of consistency in their judgements.” (see Wikipedia) and UAE.
    It sure seems like there are a lot of stats in the report, but it seems to me that economic freedom is being evaluated assuming that all economic units are free to enter and exit, which may not in fact be the case.

  7. Since this is the Fraser Institute, this is probably sound analysis. Could it be that prosperity or lack of prosperity is a choice, and not a product of chance?

  10. Robert asymtope is not a word. So whatever you said is meaningless.
    Posted by: Jeff Cosford at September 29, 2011 6:21 PM
    Nay, nay! It’s an old Indian phrase.
    a’ sim-uh-tro-‘peh
    Means the same thing as all the other old Indian terms: where the waters meet.

  11. // Could it be that prosperity or lack of prosperity is a choice, //
    It’s “economic freedom”, [however FI defines it], not prosperity.
    No. 20 on this list languishes at 108 000 GDP per capita.

  14. set you free >
    “As long as you’re friends with the guys in power…”
    That’s not entirely true. You can be Black or Mexican with +6 kids, felony charges to the moon, no ethics or ambition and get allot of free money and housing.
    You don’t need to personally know anyone” in power”. Just show up at the welfare office, introduce yourself to the pony tail grey haired white cracker with a lisp, and all is a gravy train from there on in.

  15. Phantom: it’s economic freedom : not personal freedom that’s being measured.
    Sad to see the US slowly falling down the rankings over the years… Obama has pushed america well past the inflection point on the regulation version of laffer curve. It will take a herculian (“reaganian”?) effort to pull it back and deregulate america back to prosperity post november 2012.

  16. Chip >
    Singapore is definitely in communist China’s hip pocket. They have a choice, China or totalitarian Islamic Malaysia to tell them what’s what.
    China in turn looks on Singapore as a favourite little cousin who has perfected socialism in such a way that on average people gleefully accept government control of their lives. They work every day in the most densely populated city/ country on earth, pay taxes, bitch and moan about exorbitant costs of living, all the while a few rich free people flaunt money in their faces while everyone smiles at each other allot. Break the rules, your f8cked but still accept or understand the situation for community cohesion, go Singapore!

  17. “totalitarian Islamic Malaysia”
    Feverish delusions =/= reality.
    In what world is Singapore socialist? It has not only some of the freest trade, but also allows more immigration than most any country.
    Reason did a story on a real fast way to pull the world economy up: allowing even a modest increase in the ability of people to emigrate-just the poorest 5%-would increase world GDP by 7 trillion. That’s more benefit than even total free trade would bring. Countries like Canada and America need only tear down their asinine anti-immigration barriers.
    http://reason.com/blog/2011/09/28/dont-pick-up-that-trillion-dol

  18. Knight:
    Let’s not talk nickel and dime stuff to a bunch of losers.
    Hundreds of millions to solar power manufacturers. Now, we’re talkin’!

  19. KevinB : Australia is composed in the main of Irish and Greek immigrants. Which is why the Chinese have avoided the place.
    I’m surprised they rated Chile behind Canada.

  21. Robert of Ottawa:
    These are only the top 20 – the full list goes well below 7.
    Phantom: Signapore is as much a part of China as we are of the US or Austria is of Germany. No doubt their politics are dominated by their neighbour but they are not owned by them.

  22. Interesting. The criteria for the definition of ‘economic freedom’ are essentially correlated with a definition of capitalism: personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, security of privately owned property.
    And it is indeed disturbing to see how Obama is destroying these basic attributes in the US economy.
    His massive regulations are removing personal choice in economic development and interactions. You can’t set up a new industry without years of environmental evaluations, hiring regulations, employment regulations..
    Voluntary exchange? Again, the regulations destroy that as free trade and even inter-state trade is confined and rejected.
    Freedom to compete? Heh – just one example is where Boeing, a private company, has tried to set up a plant in SC, a free-to-work (non-union) state, and Obama is suing that company insisting that it locate in a unionized state.
    Security of privately owned property? Well, I’d say that what a man earns, is his privately owned property. The Obama administration rejects this, and insists that just about everything more than basic sustenance belongs ‘to the state’. Or, you are defined as ‘greedy’.
    You know, when a govt removes all capital investment from the hands of its private citizens, guess what…there’s no more economy.
    That’s because private citizens don’t keep their money in their socks. They’ll put it in a bank and that bank will loan money to someone to set up a factory to make, well, make socks. And the profit from that? Well, the owner might work with a few other Sock-Manufacturers and they’d all set up a Shoe Factory. And the profits from that? Hmm, they might donate some to the local hospital and set up a branch plant to make more shoes…and so on.
    But when the govt takes all this capital..then, those factories don’t get built, those jobs don’t exist, and no wealth is created in that nation.
    By the way, I think that ‘asymPtope’ is a word, and I think, but I could be wrong, that what Robert is saying is that the relation between causes and result aren’t connected.

  23. I love it that two of the top five are in Communist China and therefore not free by definition.
    ~The Phantom
    Very true, right on Phantom.
    Both City states, ostensibly free because the people on average are rich, but who exactly provides for their security?
    Their autonomy, as states, is an illusion.

  24. Kakola:
    Australia is composed in the main of Irish and Greek immigrants. Which is why the Chinese have avoided the place.
    Uh, wrong, buddy. 3.3% of Australians claim Chinese breakdown; only 1.8% claim Greek. 31% claim English ancestry vs. only 9% Irish.
    But what’s really disturbing is YOU DIDN’T GET THE FREAKIN’ JOKE!

  25. libertariansaresmarter >
    “In what world is Singapore socialist?”
    Smarter, how come you never get any smarter?
    Singapore = Socialist
    If you don’t know that than please don’t write anything at all, you only make an ass of yourself.
    I live in Singapore most of the year for the last twelve years now. Most of my posts and friends are from there (real Singaporeans, some with business, some without).
    Have also lived in Malaysia for a couple of years – real time experience and knowledge, you don’t have a clue.

  26. libertariansaresmarter>
    “Countries like Canada and America need only tear down their asinine anti-immigration barriers.”
    That comment alone proves your retarded views of the world.

  27. Knight
    I spend a lot of time in Singapore too. In fact I have a business there. It’s not socialist. Property can privately held, trade is unencumbered and there’s very little wealth redistribution from the productive to the unproductive.
    Further, Singapore has had serious problems with China, the Suzhou industrial park being one. And just last week Singapore had a very high profile visit from Vietnam, a country whose ties it cultivates closely to offset the influence from China in the region.

  28. chip >
    “I spend a lot of time in Singapore too. In fact……. It’s not socialist.
    WOW, I think I either just stepped into the twilight zone, or the whole friggen world has gone nuts.
    If you’re serious (and honest) “chip” you need to define socialism for me, so that I understand it better.
    Heads up Hint: Singapore private property (free hold) has a 99 year lease…..

  29. That comment alone proves your retarded views of the world.
    So you’re saying that my views of the world, which are retarded, are also now proven? Great thanks bye.

  30. Lets see the Fraser Institute rates Singapore as economically free. One poster agrees and one replies with invective. Who ya gonna believe?

  31. gray >
    “Who ya gonna believe?”
    Must be you, your insights, expertise and contributions on the subject have been stimulating and enlightening. Ever considered getting published?

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