When many of us were growing up, we were taught that America was the freest country in the world in every conceivable way. But when it comes to economics, that clearly isn’t the case anymore. The Heritage Foundation has just released the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom, and they found that since Obama took office, the US has fallen from the 6th most economically free nation, to the 11th.
The reasons they cited included an explosion of government spending and debt, the government takeover of the healthcare sector, and the bailouts of failing companies. We’ve also seen a massive expansion of bureaucratic powers and regulations, which have created a crony system that awards some companies and punishes others. Entrepreneurship is also falling. The US is now ranked 49th globally, when it comes to the ease of starting a new business.
When the Heritage foundation first started ranking the economic freedoms of the world in 1995, the US found itself in 4th place. We were among the likes of Switzerland, Singapore, and Hong Kong. But over the course of a single generation we have taken a massive plunge. Where once we were among the freest nations, now our economic liberty is more in line with the rest of the developed world. The only question that remains, is how much further do we have to fall?
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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