Posted on 02/27/2009 6:51:57 AM PST by TornadoAlley3
This paper presents the first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. It develops and justifies the ratings and aggregation procedure on explicitly normative criteria, defining individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one's own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on other individuals ability to do the same.
This study improves on prior attempts to score economic freedom for American states in three primary ways: 1) it includes measures of social and personal freedoms such as laws punishing gambling and marijuana possession and distribution; 2) it includes far more variables, even on economic policies alone, than prior studies, and there are no missing data on any variable; 3) our measurement and aggregation procedures are more robust and better grounded than those used by the prior studies.
We find that the freest state in the country is Colorado. It achieved this ranking due to its excellent fiscal policies and decent levels of regulation and paternalism. New Hampshire, Texas, South Dakota, and Idaho round out the top five. New York is the least free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, and California. As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall while the Middle Atlantic is by far the worst on both economic and personal freedom.
The data used to create the rankings are publicly available online at www.statepolicyindex.com, and we invite others to adopt their own weights to see how the overall state freedom rankings change.
full report / 50 state rankings
Amazing, isn’t it, that the Red States have the most freedom??
graphs/charts here
May be. But we are slipping recently.
The closer you are to DC, the more screwed you are. I'm curious to see what data they have. In particular, I would like to see how population density correlates to freedom. I would also like to see how the ratio of whites/minorities correlates.
Liberals WANT to be regulated - except in the bedroom.
When you ask the State to provide everything for you, as Liberlas do, you loose most of your freedoms.
The sad thing about it is that liberals don’t see it that way. They WANT the State to run their miserable little lives for them so they and their offspring can go from cradle to grave in security.
This is the kind of thinking which created Feudalism. They deserve to be turned into miserable little serfs, protected by and toiling away for the State in place of a Feudal Lord.
But WE don’t.
“...freest state is Colorado.”
That statement contradicts what their own chart says!!!
Table V: Overall Freedom Ranking
State Overall Freedom
1. New Hampshire 0.432
2. Colorado 0.421
3. South Dakota 0.392
4. Idaho 0.356
5. Texas 0.346
6. Missouri 0.320
7. Tennessee 0.284
8. Arizona 0.279
9. Virginia 0.275
10. North Dakota 0.268
The Left has only contempt for liberty. It interferes with the Leftist agenda.
I think it’s a pretty ridiculous study. Freedom studies are the conservative version of happiness studies. Here, the author considers the criminalization of marijuana as a major issue, but totally ignored eminent domain issues. Missouri would definitely not be anywhere near as high if he considered the later.
Ping for later
There's a definite moral here: free means free, where able bodied and capable people have more opportunity to succeed, and to fail. I think I've learned more from my errors than from my successes. It's certainly taught me to appreciate the blessings I've received.
I would think the top criteria would be disposition (correct word?) of personal property, how much control do you have over your own property regards local laws, ordinances, fees etc.
Employment- are companies free to hire who they want? Are there excessive regulations that hamper small businesses and home businesses?
In other words are you free to live and thrive on your own terms? Is hard work and personal responsibility rewarded?
Religion- Are you really free to practice your religion without concern for oppression?
Education- are there a variety of educational opportunities? Affordable private schools, charter schools, vouchers, support for home schooling?
etc etc
bump to read later
Thanks for posting. I always look for stuff like this.
My beloved Texas is near the top. New Hampshire, too, which, despite an influx of Massholes, is still a unique place.
You might want to look at page 48 of the report. ED is considered, not quite as heavily as marijuana, but it is considered. I don’t agree with that weighting, but it’s there.
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