In the 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man, philosopher Francis Fukuyama posited that “liberal democracy” would become the world’s unassailable, default norm. Since then, many would argue, we’ve gotten much liberalism and the appearance of democracy, but the substance doesn’t match the style. And a recent study of liberty in the world vindicates that claim.
In fact, finds the Cato Institute’s latest edition of the Human Freedom Index, after reaching a high point in 2007 (just before the Obama years, do note), worldwide freedom had been in steady decline. But that has changed:
It entered steep decline with the Covid-19 situation in 2020.
Yet even in this world of diminished liberty in which capturing a good freedom ranking is easier, the United States has lost ground relative to other nations. It now ranks only 23rd, behind countries such as Germany, Canada, and Britain, and former communist lands such as Latvia and Estonia. America had been sixth in the world in the year 2000.
The good news is that our nation still ranks seventh in economic freedom (EF) — though, again, the context is a world in which liberty in general has contracted.
Meanwhile, another study, the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of North America (EFNA), provided EF data on our states as well. Florida captured the first spot while, in a finding surprising to many, California was not the caboose.
It ranked 49th.
New York was the absolute worst.
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