The United States has suffered a plunge in the level of economic freedom enjoyed by its citizens over the past ten years, according to the Cato Institutes’ annual report Economic Freedom of the World for 2011.
The average economic freedom score for the US ranks it tenth, as a place of personal choice, voluntary exchange, and open markets – all of which are considered the foundations for economic freedom.
The US is exceeded in economic freedom by Hong Kong (9.01 out of 10), Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom, and Mauritius. The US score was 7.60.
The average economic freedom score of the world fell for the second consecutive year, after having steadily increased from 5.53 (out of 10) in 1980 to 6.74 in 2007. It fell back to 6.64 in 2009, the most recent year for which data are available.
As Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek have stressed, freedom of exchange and market coordination provide the fuel for economic progress. Without exchange and entrepreneurial activity coordinated through markets, modern living standards would be impossible.
Potentially advantageous exchanges do not always occur. Their realization is dependent on the presence of sound money, rule of law, and security of property rights, among other factors, writes the institute.
Another Obama milestone. The rest is here.