New Study: America’s Most Liberal States Rank Least Free

Publius' Forum ^ | 5/06/09 | Warner Todd Huston

[Mobile Vulgus]

According to a new study released by the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, some of our most liberal states rank at the bottom in a measure of personal freedom. "Freedom in the 50 States, an index of personal and economic freedom," finds the most free states to be first New Hampshire, then Colorado, followed by S. Dakota, Idaho, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Arizona, Virginia and N. Dakota.The bottom ten least free states in the U.S. are (in descending order) Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington, Hawaii, Maryland, California, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and bringing up the bottom is New York.

It is striking that some of the most Republican states are the most free and all the least free are Democrat states, isn't it? ( rel="nofollow">2008 Election Map)

In keeping with the institute's namesake, American founder George Mason, the rankings are based on some supremely American concepts. Rankings were determined by measuring the personal and economic freedoms of the citizens of the various states coupled with the size and cost of government, education regulations, Second Amendment restrictions, as well as the amount of interference via regulations and police agencies on the populace.

Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

[Mobile Vulgus]

Imagine that. The more liberal the least free. Naturally.

[Ev Reeman]

This study is not surprising.

Americans residing in blue states need to wake up to what is happening to them.

Their liberties are being taken away. And their taxes are being levied in order for the government of these blue states to continue to take those liberties away.

When are the American people going to wake up to this fact.

[Puppage]

As long as it’s for the childrens

[lormand]

Call it what it is, fascism. Liberals love it.

[qam1]

New Hampshire, then Colorado

Huh?

For starters both New Hampshire and Colorado have smoking bans, so this study or whatever is way off there.

[NMEwithin]

I live in Rhode Island and believe me, it’s like being behind enemy lines every single day...

[Tax-chick]

http://www.statepolicyindex.com/

This link has the information on the factors they considered and how they weighted them to assign the rankings.

[Tax-chick]

http://freedom.robocourt.com/

At this link, you can re-wonk the importance of different factors.

[muawiyah]

Fur Shur they didn’t rank “open carry” high enough.

[17th Miss Regt]

When are the American people going to wake up to this fact?

When the camp gates close behind them and they turn around and take a last look at the freedom they once knew.

[dashing doofus]

I don’t smoke, but if I wanted to I could. What ban?

[Tax-chick]

“Gun control” has the 4th-heaviest count, after taxes, spending, and education. You can revalue “gun control” as a whole on the link, but not “open carry” as a specific -sub-element.

[andy58-in-nh]

Smoking bans were not heavily weighted, perhaps because they are now so ubiquitous. OTOH, if frequency and intensity of enforcement matters, New Hampshire is characteristically relaxed about it, in my experience.

If you inadvertently light up in a restricted area, it's more likely than not that someone will quietly and courteously draw your attention to the fact. That is as opposed to states like New York and New Jersey, where I have witnessed somewhat more, ahem, militant behavior.

[qam1]

You can't smoke in a bar, restaurant or even PRIVATE clubs in both Colorado and New Hampshire

I no longer smoke, but that doesn't sound like Freedom to me

[muawiyah]

“Open Carry” is simply the Second Amendment, pure and simple. If you need a permit to carry a pistol in a holster, openly, walking down the street, then you do not have full second-amendment protection.

[devistate one four]

When the state owned press tells the people.

[Tax-chick]

Okay, fine. I didn’t write the program.

I did find, when I made adjustments to the weights to reflect my personal issues, that it didn’t make a big difference. New Hampshire was still at the top, New York was still at the bottom, and North Carolina was still around the middle. Perhaps because there are so many factors, adjustments to individual ones don’t shift the total much. Zeroing out some might have more impact.

[muawiyah]

If you went no further than looking at the regulations governing the ports in and around New York City you'd put New York at the bottom.

At the same time without those rules there'd be no port operations there and New York City wouldn't exist (instead, all those people would live next door to us, achhh).

Let me suggest this is a hopeless task and you could do just as well by estimating aggregate tax load per person.

[Quix]

Joya ping

Your former turf . . .

[Tax-chick]

I don’t think port regulations were even considered. I’m finished messing with it, anyway!