At the dawn of the new millennium, the U.S. ranked in the top five of almost every economic freedom ranking available — usually coming in at about the No. 2 spot. That’s pretty impressive for an international superpower. But just as the nation’s authority throughout the world has dwindled notably in the past decade and a half, so too has the economic freedom of its inhabitants.
According to the Fraser Institute’s annual “Economic Freedom of the World” report, U.S. economic freedom has been in steady decline since 2010, as the Obama administration began taking its toll on the personal freedoms, tax rates, and legal and property rights of American citizens.
Today, the nation has slid all the way down to No. 16 in a ranking of economic freedom throughout the world.
The ranking is based on an analysis of 42 factors, including “size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labor and business.”
The top 10 of this year’s ranking include:
- Hong Kong
- Singapore
- New Zealand
- Switzerland
- United Arab Emirates
- Mauritius
- Jordon
- Ireland
- Canada
- United Kingdom and Chile tied
“A weakened rule of law, the so-called wars on terrorism and drugs, and a confused regulatory environment have helped erode economic freedom in the United States, which remains behind Canada and other more economically free countries such as Qatar, Jordan and the U.A.E,” explained Fred McMahon, a leading researcher at the institute.
“Economic freedom breeds prosperity and economically free countries like Canada offer the highest quality of life while the lowest-ranked countries are usually burdened by oppressive regimes that limit the freedom and opportunity of their citizens,” he added.
With recent headlines indicating that the United States’ economic freedom isn’t on course to increase anytime soon, it’s more important than ever for Americans to protect what’s left of their personal economic freedoms. This can mean taking the steps necessary to protect your assets from a financial system increasingly designed to enslave average citizens and, in some cases, finding ways to capitalize on the situations in more economically free parts of the world.
But in order to best hedge against the United States’ crumbling economic system, the most important step is understanding how it got this bad to begin with.
After all, it’s no accident that the U.S., once considered a bastion of economic freedom, is clamping down on its citizens’ financial freedom as it is simultaneously hemorrhaging world power.
The post U.S. gets poor marks in yet another ‘economic freedom’ report appeared first on Personal Liberty®.
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