The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom rankings are worth checking out. Going into 2007 the US ranks 4th, behind Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
Canada is 10th, but it’s a close run thing. The biggest surprise for me is the number of categories where Canada is ranked as more free than the US. The US has substantial leads in “Investment freedom”, “Financial freedom”, and “Labor freedom.” “Freedom from government” makes a smaller contribution to the US lead. In six other categories the US trails, is tied, or is only slightly ahead.
Another interesting bit is that the top seven, and eight of the top ten, are former British colonies (or the UK itself). France is 45th, 4 ahead of Mexico. Venezuela is 144th. I predict this will go down next year. Guess who’s last (157th)?
The exercise of determining the grouping of Communist, or formerly Communist countries, and/or examining the list based on the predominant religion is left to the student.
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