Measuring Economic Freedom vs. Human Freedom

The Fraser Institute's study of economic freedom in the world for 2022 (data from 2020) has just been published. As usual, the stars of the show are Hong Kong and Singapore, with New Zealand not far behind. The US is at seventh place.

One might ask: How can an island that is completely under the thumb of a Communist nation be the most free nation in the world? And how can a country (New Zealand, No. 4) be considered free if its people just passed a law forbidding anyone born on or after January 1, 2009 from buying tobacco, ever? Not just before they reach the age of 21, but forever. (Good luck with that....)

Free image from Pixabay.com

Okay, I get the measuring sticks used by this study. They are purely economic. The measurements concern:

• Size of government
• Legal systems and property rights
• Sound money
• Freedom to trade internationally
• Regulation

But aren't there a few more criteria that they should include? For example, I could imagine adding these:

• Freedom of the press
• Not just the size but the intrusiveness of government
• Government stability and autonomy
• Monetary stability

And maybe others.

In researching this question, I answered it for myself. Fraser has also published what it calls the Human Freedom Index. In this study, Hong Kong drops to the 34th place, Singapore to 44th, and the King of the Roost is ... wait for it ... SWITZERLAND!

I could have told you that. My favorite country.

Here are the criteria for the human freedom index:

• Rule of law
• Security and safety
• Movement
• Religion
• Association, assembly, and civil society
• Expression and information
• Relationships
• Size of government
• Legal system and property rights
• Sound money
• Freedom to trade internationally
• Regulation

So be careful which index you use for decisions about your future. Frankly, what is economic freedom without human freedom, I ask you?

What Is There About an Island that Encourages Freedom?

Here we are, Americans most of us, thinking that we live in the most economically emancipated country in the world. If you are not American, and something other than British or French, you know this; if you're British or French, you contest this, because you think Britain or France is the most emancipated country in the world.

I am, of course, writing fingertips-in-cheek. For some cold, hard statistics and real scientific parameters, let's look at this article over at Cato. It makes us jump right off our high hat.

The study is called Economic Freedom of the World, and we learn that the most economically free countries are:

1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. New Zealand
4. Switzerland
5. A tie between Canada, the UK and the US


[Thanks to cyborlink.com for the image.]

The first four are tiny islands of a sort, if you can count land-locked Switzerland as an island in the middle of that sea of European Union members. And actually Hong Kong, too, is not just the island itself--detail that I had ignored up to this moment. The whole territory is called the "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" and includes Hong Kong island, Kowloon, the New Territories, and the Outlying Islands. But you get my point.

Now I know my blog wanderings are not scientific; still, I wonder if there might be some explanation for this. Yes, the scientists are going to interrupt me in my ramblings to point out the examples that disprove my implied hypothesis. Cuba is not even mentioned in this study because it is the antithesis of freedom (a hermetic dictatorship) and therefore no data could be obtained to study it. Brunei and Bahrain are kingdoms. Japan only made number 9. But still.

So I continue. Here are the questions that come to mind.

1. Do freedom-minded people move to islands? Definitely true in the case of Hong Kong and Singapore; maybe also of New Zealand. Switzerland, no; because up until fairly recently, they were very tough on immigration, and these past few years a xenophobic minority is increasingly vocal.... But wait. How was Switzerland formed? Weren't they a mountain people able to survive by their own wits, some of whom, resenting the increasing proximity of other-minded folk, retreated higher and higher to be among themselves? There's something to this....

2. Do freedom-loving people tend to resist encroachment? Definitely true for Hong Kong and Switzerland, and maybe the other two.

3. Do people who prefer to benefit from less-free but more generous government policies tend to leave islands and move to those more generous countries, to become citizens there and vote for even bigger governments? That's too complicated to answer, but it would be fun for some geek to research it. The answer is not a given. On the contrary, it would seem that having the gumption to get up and move takes initiative, entrepreneurship and a yearning for freedom from something.

4. Do the powerful of surrounding nations find a reason to allow these small "islands" to exist in peace, for their own profit? Hmm. Definitely true of Hong Kong and Switzerland, and probably Singapore. Monaco comes to mind, but the Report doesn't include them, probably because they're almost part of France; and there are others.

I'll stop here, but you get the idea. I'd love for someone to research why other countries have done better than we have at preserving the very notions that were the basis for our creation as a nation.