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Here are the freest big countries in the world

Published on 56 Comments on Here are the freest big countries in the world

I never know how seriously to take these things, but for what it's worth here are how the ten biggest countries in the world fared on the latest Economic Freedom ratings from the Fraser Institute:

Here are the 25 biggest countries:

Thanks to the pandemic everybody's scores took a bit of a hit in 2020. But I'm sure that next year we'll find out that after shaking off all the COVID-19 lockdowns the world will once again be a freer place.

56 thoughts on “Here are the freest big countries in the world”

  1. Justin

    Apparently freedom means having guns. I hate this awful woman like I hate trump.

    California congresswoman Karen Bass, who is also running for mayor of Los Angeles, said on Saturday that two guns were stolen from the home. Rep. Bass, 68, released a statement that said she came home Friday to find her home in Baldwin Vista burglarized. The guns — which had been “safely and securely stored” — were missing.

    Hypocrite. Stupid effing useless… ugh.

    1. Jasper_in_Boston

      Why is she a hypocrite?

      I'm a rabidly enthusiastic fan of enacting sane, sensible gun laws in America. But sane guns laws don't imply guns are banned. Heck even the UK and Japan don't technically "ban" private ownership of firearms.

      If it comes to light Representative Bass has broken any gun rules or regulations, let us know. Otherwise we'll just add this to your collection of really bad takes.

      1. Justin

        Here are some more bad takes for you then.

        Though it will never happen and is impossible to implement, I would ban “guns”. All Gun owners are, to me, stupid and effing useless. I could use other words to describe them.

        This bass person is a hypocrite because she is the very definition of an irresponsible gun owner.

        They are also a liar because, of course, they were not “safely and securely stored”. How could that be?

        There you go! Hope your guns are securely stored “in Boston”. Guns in the home… dangerous!

        1. Jasper_in_Boston

          This bass person is a hypocrite because she is the very definition of an irresponsible gun owner.

          You have absolutely no inside knowledge whatsoever regarding Karen Bass's practices with respect to her gun ownership. The reportage says her home was burglarized—you know, by criminals. For starters, the irresponsible thing to do would be to refrain from promptly reporting the theft to the authorities: the woman is running for mayor. Not reporting the theft would have been politically expedient.

          They are also a liar because, of course, they were not “safely and securely stored”.

          Again, you possess zero evidence of this. It's entirely possible she was following to the letter all relevant storage requirements. Indeed, there is no indication to the contrary. The LA Times has the story, if you're willing to read something that might challenge your preconceived notions. The article mentions a lockbox.

          https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-10/bass-burglary-stole-two-guns-from-home-of-mayoral-candidate

          1. Justin

            I have all the evidence I need. I’m not a prosecutor. It is irresponsible to allow your guns to be stolen. End of story. The fact that they were stolen is the evidence of her irresponsible behavior.

            Putting your gun in a box - locked or otherwise- where it can be stolen is not safe or secure. Whatever this security was, I’m guessing it’s now smashed and the guns free from their alleged security.

            Go ahead and excuse her behavior on some technical aspect. I’m judging here character. And for my test, she failed miserably. That’s it. I hope she loses.

    2. ProgressOne

      Man, you find the most negative takes on just about everything. You need to find a way to have a better view of the world and human beings that you "hate". Reading your comments is like taking a drink of poison.

      1. Justin

        My apologies. I have a dark view of humanity these days. People like Ms. Bass who own weapons have, I think, an even darker view than me! She's thought about how to kill someone. And prepared for the eventuality.

        1. ScentOfViolets

          So averring that Hong Kong is the 'freest' nation is a perfectly bog standard center-right opinion.

          What color is the sky in your world, Cliffie?

    2. ProgressOne

      Yes, it's a little annoying decoupling economic freedom from personal freedom. I mean China ranks as high as Brazil on economic freedom. But Freedom House ranks Brazil as free. Meanwhile China is a police state nightmare, and China is now working hard to do the same with Hong Kong.

  4. rick_jones

    Methinks there is more to “freedom” than money… but given they focused on matters economic we have fascinating results, perhaps less obvious than they should be because … cough … non-zero-based charts … cough…

        1. ProgressOne

          Hmm, rather like Trumpers who reject the MSM, mainstream experts, and leaders of our major institutions? But many on the left do the same by rejecting non-liberal sources of info. (To be fair, Trumpers take this to a whole new level. In fact, they truly believe Trump himself to be the most honest source for information.)

          2. ScentOfViolets

            Contrast "This is claim is absolutely bonkers, which is not surprising given that they're a wingnut organization' vs "They're a wingnut organization, therefore this claim is bonkers."

            Honest question: what would your judgement be of someone who cannot distinguish betweeb the two statements? Who in fact thinks them to be different phrasings of identical claims?

            I won't wait with bated breath for your reply for the obvious reason.

      4. Jasper_in_Boston

        Good job attacking the source.

        Some sources deserve to be attacked because of their shitty track record and/or their agenda-drive complete lack of objectivity. Like, uh, the Fraser institute.

      5. Joseph Harbin

        @Starglider

        What a vicious "attack"! How dare he quote the first sentence of the institute's Wikipedia page! Not fair! If we let people know that sources are "conservative-libertarian," no one will ever believe them.

      6. KenSchulz

        You do realize that measuring ‘economic freedom’ isn’t like measuring, oh, wind speed? There’s a great deal of subjectivity in their factors, for example, ‘size of government’ is a negative factor, as they assume that a larger government is meddling more in economic affairs.

        1. ProgressOne

          Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Netherlands have some of the highest government spending as a % of GDP. But all of these countries also have a high rating for economic freedom. So the "size of government" must not be used as a big factor in ratings.

          BTW, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Netherlands all rank higher for economic freedom than the US. This surprises many people people. Trumpers, for example, assume growing government means socialism and this will ruin us. But Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Netherlands are doing just fine.

          1. KenSchulz

            True, but that doesn’t make it an objective factor. I could have cited any of several other ‘measures’ they rate countries on, none of which are objective.

    2. bethby30

      Thanks for posting this. Libertarians define economic freedom in terms of unregulated “free” markets with little to no government intervention as possible. I don’t think ordinary people or businesses losing everything during covid without government-funded relief would have been more economically free than they were with those bailouts.
      Libertarian policies lead to markets being dominated by plutocrats who drive out others and crush competition — that is by crushing free markets. Libertarian policies gives the wealthy all the economic freedom they want by allowing them to crush the economic freedom of everyone else.

  6. dilbert dogbert

    A co-worker from Jordan complained about how tough it was to do business in the USA. Bribes get things done in Jordan.

  8. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    I assume Kevin Drum's fellow Oranqe Qounty Republiqan brother by another mother Conor Friedersdork will be online soon to rebut this given the hegemonic kancel kulture of the leftwing authoritarians in America.

    & speaking of Kkkalifornian Atlantic contributing editors, somebody alert Kkkaitlyn Flanagan that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is dying (again).

    https://twitter.com/KareemRifai/status/1568674001307697154

  9. kenalovell

    The index simply measures the extent to which countries meet libertarian ideals of small government. It has no connection to the conception of freedom that most individual citizens have.

    1. ProgressOne

      Sorry, wrong. Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Netherlands have some of the highest government spending as a % of GDP. But all of these countries also have a high rating for economic freedom. In fact -- Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Netherlands all rank higher for economic freedom than the US.

      1. ScentOfViolets

        Sorry, you're assuming but not showing that economic freedom is inversely proportional to government spending. This is precisely the sort of unsupported conclusion that would earn you an F for this assignment in my class.

        1. bethby30

          Actually Progress one is pointing out that economic freedom is high in several countries that have high government spending on social welfare — the relation is not inverse, it is direct in those

          1. ScentOfViolets

            Sigh. Let me translate English into butthead so you can understand: he's assuming that 'high spending' means 'not small governemnt' ... and that this is a libertarian thing as well.

            You people really should look up the meaning of the terms you're throwing around before you attempt any snarky gotchas.

  11. rick_jones

    During his punditry in COVID and how well the US was(n’t) doing, Kevin compared almost exclusively with other “Western” countries rather than by size (population). So, why by population here?

  12. jte21

    Lol. Citing a study by the Fraser Institute is like citing a study by the American Enterprise Institute and not noting its ideological leanings. Fraser's criteria for "freedom" is more or less "rich assholes are free to run roughshod over everything in their way without mean old government 'constraining' them with taxes and regulations or providing a social safety net for the 'losers'."

      1. jte21

        Um, so you're suggesting that the Fraser Institute's "Freedom Index" is some kind of neutral, objective measure of human liberty -- as if such as thing exists -- as opposed to a way of promoting a particular small-government, shred-the-safety-net. libertarian viewpoint and that pointing that out is the equivalent of claiming the 2020 election was rigged?

        Lol.

        1. bethby30

          Libertarians don’t count poor people having enough money for housing, food and education as “economic freedom”. Their definition of freedom is free from government intervention which automatically biases their framing of these kinds of studies.
          That being said at least the study makes it clear how they measured their defining of “economic freedom” but people are not wrong to point out the inherent bias in research from any group with a clear ideology let alone a hidden ideology/agenda. In fact we should read all research with that kind of skepticism. I have repeatedly noticed a clear bias in a lot of health research against any food product that isn’t “natural” as well as clear bias against any kind of fat in foods despite decades of well-designed research showing that some kinds of fats are healthy. There have been some well-designed studies that cast doubt on the deeply held belief that saturated fats are unhealthy.
          https://news.osu.edu/news/2014/11/21/study-doubling-saturated-fat-in-the-diet-does-not-increase-saturated-fat-in-blood/

          https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/5-studies-on-saturated-fat
          As a result of that anti-fat bias the facts are still murky.

          Even scientists can be swayed by their long held beliefs despite evidence against them. Paradigm shifts are very difficult for humans to make.

    1. bethby30

      To be fair Russia and China are far behind most developed countries but I seriously doubt that Russia is more economically free than South Africa or Ukraine (data is prewar 2020). Ukraine was very corrupt but that was in large part because of the corruption of Putin-aligned oligarchs. Are we really supposed to believe that Russia (94) has less corruption and economic control than Ukraine (126) the country they were corrupting?

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