The 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, produced jointly by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, has just been released and Obama’s America continues to slide further down the list. For the first time the US has fallen out of the top 10, slipping to number 12, and, due to a host of freedom decreasing policies, we are no longer categorized as “economically free.” Instead the US has fallen to the “mostly free” category. Countries that the study ranks as having more economic freedom than the US, from 1 to 11, are Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, Mauritius, Ireland, Denmark, and Estonia. Ranked last in the world is North Korea. As is noted in this WSJ article summarizing the 2014 changes to the index:
Countries achieving higher levels of economic freedom consistently and measurably outperform others in economic growth, long-term prosperity and social progress. Botswana, for example, has made gains through low tax rates and political stability. Those losing freedom, on the other hand, risk economic stagnation, high unemployment and deteriorating social conditions.
The concluding paragraph of the WSJ story is rightfully judgmental:
The record of increasing economic freedom elsewhere makes it inexcusable that a country like the U.S. continues to pursue policies antithetical to its own growth, while wielding its influence to encourage other countries to chart the same disastrous course. The 2014 Index of Economic Freedom documents a world-wide race to enhance economic opportunity through greater freedom—and this year’s index demonstrates that the U.S. needs a drastic change in direction.
