Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
Switzerland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Denmark, The United Kingdom, Sweden, and Canada, among others.
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.o...om-index-2.pdf
It ranks 17th. In that.
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/econ...=map&year=2015
11th in that one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index
21st here.
Other than Americans, who actually believes that America is the most free country? |
That report takes a very specific definition of freedom, one that is a very valid definition, but it does things like identify security as pro freedom concept, even though freedom and security as concepts are typically the antithesis of each other. I understand they included this in their definition of freedom because people feel more comfortable working under a blanket of security, but it's clear this is a specific definition of freedom.
America's style of freedom is more personal freedom orientated. Americans typically pay far less taxes than those countries listed and so far have not sent anyone to jail over nazi pugs. You can certainly argue that an excess of freedom results in a failure to protect citizens and a net loss of freedom, but I don't see any of those countries as being fundamentally more free than the US. It's also clear that the extreme highs and lows found in America is a testament to the huge amount of individual freedom there.
As flawed as it may be, the american model of freedom has also been superconductor for technological development, and technological development has been the biggest driver of freedom in the modern world. The success of America's mad experiment with freedom has also been a boon to global freedom, their model of freedom has been so successful that every successful nation has adopted it to some degree.