The Heritage Foundation has released its 2015 Index of Economic Freedom, and the results aren’t great for the US. We come in 12th, with particularly low scores in government spending and fiscal freedom. According to the report,
The United States’ economic freedom score is 76.2, making its economy the 12th freest in the 2015 Index. Its score is 0.7 point higher than last year, with modest gains in six of the 10 economic freedoms, including control of government spending, outweighing a slight decline in business freedom.
Although the precipitous downward spiral in U.S. economic freedom since 2008 has come to a halt in the 2015 Index, a 1.6-point decline in overall economic freedom over the past five years reflects broad-based deteriorations in key policy areas, particularly those related to upholding the rule of law and limited government. Continuing to trail such comparable economies as Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Canada, America has been ranked “mostly free” since 2010.
The anemic post-recession recovery has been characterized by slow growth, high unemployment, a decrease in the number of Americans seeking work, and great uncertainty that has held back investment. Increased tax and regulatory burdens, aggravated by favoritism toward entrenched interests, have undercut America’s historically dynamic entrepreneurial growth.
We can do better than this. Canada and Australia scored higher than us. So did Ireland, Denmark, Estonia, and Chile. Policy makers should consider the things that are driving down our score, and look at what these other countries are doing differently. Perhaps there are lessons there for us.
And if you’re into this sort of thing, the Index’s website is interactive and really quite interesting. There’s all kinds of information, comparison tools, and maps. It’s worth having a look around.
