Study ranks Canada economically freer
O Canada. How did it come to this? According to an annual study by international think tanks, Canada now ranks higher than the U.S. in its degree of economic freedom. Commentator Will Wilkinson explains.
Commentator Will Wilkinson (The Cato Institute)
More on The Economy, International, Wall Street, Canada, America's Financial Crisis
TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Renita Jablonski: While Congress debates the shape of the mother of all government bailouts, Commentator Will Wilkinson says the U.S. is already facing stiff competition as the world's bastion of free markets. Wilkinson says the challenger is a lot closer than you think.
Will Wilkinson: Wanna dodge the draft, get gay-married or smoke a joint without fear of life in the clink. Where do you go? Canada!
The frosty land of curling and Celine Dion has long been a destination for Americans fleeing the puritanical, war-mongering excesses of the States. And now, according to a new study, our hockey-loving, socialized-health-care-having neighbors to the north have surpassed the U.S. in its degree of economic freedom. Not only can Canadians more accurately pronounce laissez faire, they have more of it. And that was before the U.S. government nationalized half our mortgage industry and bought the world's largest insurance company.
In last year's Economic Freedom of the World Index, published by an international consortium of think tanks (including my employer), Canada and the U.S., the so-called "land of the free," were running neck and neck. But in this year's study -- which tracks things like the size of government, burden of economic regulation and free trade -- Canada squeaked out a tiny advantage: it ranked seventh compared to eighth place for the U.S. Strictly speaking, it's a statistical tie. But if the U.S. doesn't have the freest economy in North America, much less the world, what do freedom-loving Americans have to keep us from running for the border?
Economic freedom isn't everything, right? The U.S. does more to protect free speech and the right to bear arms in self-defense. And Canadian medical socialism surely benefits from the fact that most Canadians are only a short drive from the slightly more market-based American system. But if the United States of warrantless wiretaps, secret courts, militarized drug busts and mass minority imprisonment is not clearly more economically free than Canada, then it probably has no claim to being a freer country overall.
And now the U.S. government is about to commit hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out financiers who made a series of terrible decisions, in effect socializing just the downside of financial risk. America's revolutionary founders pledged their lives fortunes, and sacred honor for this?
Vancouver's not that cold, you know.
Jablonski: Will Wilkinson is a research fellow at the Cato Institute.
Comments
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From Yerevan, 02/22/2009
i am 17,i live in Armenia,and i have already finished school, i want to study in a Canadian university,can you help me?
From Chicago, IL, 09/25/2008
Well said Will Wilkinson! Now here's a nimble article! Kudos to Wilkinson for standing up for both people, Canadians and Americans. This second major banking bailout (no one seems to recall the other huge corporate welfare handout of the 1980's, remember the S&L's?) is one more obvious slap in the face to our Democratic Republic, one more Neo-Con-munist whipping from the mostly Republican-elite. Wilkinson neglects to mention the "Funny-Bone Drain" if you will, between Canada and America. If Canadians obvious increases in Liberty and Freedom continue, will American Comedians flock to bigger financial gains in Toronto? Remains to be seen I spose'. Canada: you can have Horatio Sans, John Candy was like buying Alaska from the Russians, what a deal!
From ON, 09/24/2008
Please answer: Why does the Heritage and Wall Street Journal rank the US as 5th and Canada as 7th? Are they different scales/surveys? http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/countries.cfm
From Clay, NY, 09/24/2008
As a Canadian living in the US as the result of my marriage and my wife's more lucrative job with the US Airforce at the time of our nuptuals, I must say BRAVO! Marketplace. We need more commentary here on what a marvelous country, on many levels, there is north of the 49th. Thanks.
From Seattle, WA, 09/24/2008
I've been threatening to do just that (run for the border) for years now. This latest outrage is the last straw. Your words are the last nudge I need. Thanks, Will -- BC here I come.
From Homer, AK, 09/24/2008
Thank you for your great observations and helping America wake up!!!
Please help rid from our government the Skull and bones, Bohemian Groove participants, Builderbergers, Counsel on Foreign Relations, Tri-Lateral Commission, and Club of Rome and other such organizations with hidden agendas (especially in executive branch). These evil societies in our government are destroying sovereignty and prosperity of our country and allow control by private and corporate interests (fascism). The elite inner circle is trying to pull off another 'Reichstag'. If you are an associate or a member (insider) of one of these groups, please feel your love of country and its citizens and blow a whistle. If you don't know about these groups, please learn history. We cannot afford to wait another 10 years for the truth to come out. You should know that the 'official' explanation of the collapse of the twin towers and Tower 7 on 9/11 is a lie. If you doubt this, than you should have no objection with opening a new 9/11 investigation because the
last investigation was a sham. Please revoke the 'Patriot act'.
Please make the 'Federal' Reserve actually federal. Please don't use tax payer dollars to bail out banks, especially evil ones like A.I.G.
The Executive branch has become way to powerful, remove many of its powers. Promote transparency in our government. Three evil forces are at work in our country manipulating government from the shadows, the military industrial complex, big oil, and international bankers. Help a great effort to get clean energy developed. Rev.
From Raleigh, NC, 09/24/2008
Congratulations Will, you pull me over. I will pledge support to WUNC now.
"puritanical, war-mongering excesses"- Do people glare at you too for speaking the truth?
"...warrantless wiretaps, secret courts, militarized drug busts and mass minority imprisonment..."-You left out "illegal software monopoly".
"socializing just the downside of financial risk"-Oh I do so want to throw some tea into a harbor right now.
Thank you William Tell-it-like-it-is.
From Calgary, AB, 09/24/2008
"Canadian medical socialism surely benefits from the fact that most Canadians are only a short drive from the slightly more market-based American system"
As a dual-citizen (originally US for 34 years), I take issue with this statement. Under the Canadian system, everyone has basic health coverage at a reasonable price. I never have to wait more than a day to see my GP, and a few weeks at worst for a specialist. If we (Americans) weren't so obsessed with instant gratification regarding every sniffle, we'd find the Canadian system quite satisfying.
Current efforts by some northern Conservatives to create dual private/public health systems have generally floundered, as Canadians have generally realized that setting up a special system to benefit the top X% of earners is harmful in the long run (duplication of resources, diversion of healthcare professionals, etc. does more harm than good).
Yes, we sometimes have long waits for things like MRI, but generally only for non-emergent care. Yes, there are certain areas where we need improvement (a recent article cited insufficient pediatric ICU beds, resulting in a few mothers being shipped to Montana for delivery). But having lived in both systems, I'd take the northern one any day!
From TX, 09/24/2008
"The People's Republican Republic of the United States" has a nice ring to it.
From Monmouth, OR, 09/24/2008
As someone who really appreciates the irony of Republicans championing massive government meddling; I love this analysis.
Especially that it aired next to a news item with this quote (RE: Gordon Brown on Britain considering its own bailout). "And after all, he says, many big British banks, like Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland, could be eligible for help under the American scheme."
So, the political party that has derided proposals for many national reforms as 'socialism' is out-socializing Canada and Great Britain? Gotta love it!
From Boston, MA, 09/24/2008
Sad but true. And even before the bailout, "economic freedom" was a concept that only applied to the wealthy.
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