bobbo, words have a context says:

Yeap. Hard to tell as this is new to me but “looks like” the MAFIA or any other CRIME FAMILY would score on top or near it?

Nice concept though==how to define/measure/take meaning from various versions of “freedom.”

One could opine that the higher the gap between rich and poor you have, the greater the economic freedom you have with a large moderating influence of being sparsely populated.

Good Info. I would guess with the USA in the greatest decline, we need more tax cuts right?

Rick Cain says:

Singapore??? Isn’t that the place where you can be beaten by the police for spitting on the sidewalk?

I know the rightwing Heritage Foundation loves their republican police state, but this is ridiculous.

nilum87 says:

I used to be an intern for the dept at Heritage that produces the Index. I found the people working there to be nothing if not professional and very concerned with keeping the Index as scholarly as possible.

@3&4 The Index is exclusively economic freedoms. It has nothing to do with, and does not take into account, rights such as freedom of speech, press, franchise, etc. There are plenty of other organizations that cover those topics (e.g. Reporters Sans Frontières, The First Amendment Center)

@5 Due to its history and status as a “special administrative region” Hong Kong is often considered its own nation in matters unrelated to the military and foreign policy.

bobbo, my heroes have always been --cowboys??-- says:

So, reflecting a bit more, what has a few of us uncomfortable is the LABELING of these measurements as “freedom.”

Is it freedom, or something slightly but importantly something else?

If it is “economic freedom” yet not any of the most important freedoms, is it fairly freedom at all?

I suppose any JAIL would score on top for “caloric freedom” as inmates are guaranteed food but is the arrangement “freedom” in any sense of the word?

So happy nil is here to educate us.

bobbo, my heroes have always been --cowboys??-- says:

#9–nil==thanks. Seems insightful and fair.

All about balance and weights isn’t it?

One of my great concerns is the widening gap in USA between the rich and poor. Would “economic freedom” go up with a widening gap or go down or is there a bell shaped distribution?

Is how the Mafia would score irrelevant in your mind, a mere distraction offering nothing?

Freedom and Prosperity both appear. Both feel good words. Both undefined. If more people have offshore banking accounts while more people die from lack of access to preventative healthcare, is that more or less freedom/prosperity?

Is it good or bad that the USA would go up or down on this chart? Are the measurements absolute, or based on a curve with the other participants?

Should “studies” like this even be published as unavoidably nothing but propaganda?

nilum87 says:

@10 I don’t know the specifics of how the score is calculated (As mentioned above, I was just an intern) but the Gini Coefficient shouldn’t factor into it. While a useful indicator which should be watched, it’s unrelated to economic freedom.

As for Hong Kong’s “Mafia” government (if I’m following your correctly) I must admit, my knowledge of Hong Kong is limited at best, so I can’t really respond.

As for whether the score is measured on a cure or absolutely, I am fairly certain that it is absolute. For confirmation you’d have to check the methodologies section of the book.

As for whether or not the index is propaganda, I’d say: of course it is. The Heritage Foundation’s entire reason for being is to try to influence public policy in there direction. Thus the Index is an attempt to use data towards these means. This doesn’t make the Index useless. It can and is judged on its own academic merits.

In addition, it’s no more propaganda than an Obama press conference, “An Inconvenient Truth,” or pretty much anything that has ever come out of any politician’s mouth, no matter their party.

bobbo, libertarianism fails when it becomes dogma says:

#12–nil==hah,hah. I think you said more than you meant. I did ask about the Mafia as a way to understand the chart but made no reference to Hong Kong.

So, just another example of political propaganda posing as “a study?”

I should have stopped my inquiry once it was revealed the Heritage Foundation is libertarian based. Taxes equal slavery approach to data analysis?

Like the “answer cube” every question you ask comes up with “lower taxes?” with the nice twist here that it is framed as a “freedom and prosperity” issue. Clever and nasty. Get all kinds of LIEBERTARIANS all confused.

Cue up Loser.

Thanks Nil. Hope you found something honorable to do with your life.

Li says:

Starbucks doesn’t have free wifi. My economic freedom is smarting, I tell you!

raster says:

Haha, another day, another useless table from HF. “Freedom Score”!? lmao!

Next up we’ll have graphs that feature “Liveliness Index”, “Liberty Factor” and “Happiness Pursuit Quota”.

MikeN says:

African countries that were British colonies are generally better off than the ones that were French colonies. Is that reflected in this list?