This Washington Times piece by Richard Rahn is must reading. In it, he compares Hong Kong, an aspirational society with little government, to New York, which has become an envious society (along with much of the rest of America) with a huge government.
The US used to be a huge version of Hong Kong, but then the collectivist/progressive/statist/cronyist cabal took over and has succeeded in transforming the nation into the mess it now is.
