As for doing business America is very free, but not as free as Hong Kong, which shows that there's more to life than just 'business'.
Panama is a nice place with about 3 million people, and America has a hundred times as many so we should think of the US as 100 places. Living in say, New York City is not for everyone and no way in hell is it the same as life in Sweetwater, Texas.
As bad as things seem, it's been worse and we got better.
The issue is that the folks in New York and DC want to control the lives and health of the folks in Sweetwater. They are no longer content with lording over the idiots in their own back yard, they want it all and everyone else now.
I would have to argue with the comment that we got better after those “worse times”. We never did recover... It only got worse... Until we found ourselves here, now, on the edge of (if not already in free fall into) the marxist abyss...