The Grand Pooh-Bah
05-06-2009, 06:17 PM
CONSERVATIVE STATES OFFER THE MOST FREEDOM
According to a new study released by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Idaho is the fourth best state in the country in offering personal and economic freedom to its residents.
So if you think it's bad here, imagine what it would be like to be stuck in Rhode Island, New Jersey, or New York, which bring up the rear.
Significantly, there is a strong correlation between conservatism and freedom on the one hand and liberalism and bondage on the other. The states that are most free tend to be the most conservative politically: S. Dakota, Colorado, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Arizona, Virginia and N. Dakota join Idaho in the top ten, while the least free states are without exception bastions of statism run wild: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, Hawaii and California all have the dubious honor of being in the bottom ten.
This gives the lie to the myth that conservatives are the repressive ones. The truth, as is often the case, turns out to be the exact opposite. The more liberal a state is, the less likely it is to offer its residents genuine personal and financial freedom.
The basic instinct of the conservative is to be left alone, while the basic instinct of the liberal is to meddle. Conservatives have a high regard for individual autonomy, choice and personal responsibility, while statists, thinking they are smarter than everybody in the room, want to dictate lifestyle choices to as many of the benighted and unwashed masses as possible.
Freedom as defined by the Center is "the ability to dispose of one's own life, liberty and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual's ability to do the same."
New York, the least free state in the union, has the highest taxes in the country, high spending on social services, extremely high government debt, restrictive gun laws, and burdensome home school regulations.
Idaho, in contrast, has the lowest government debt ratio in the U.S., below average taxes and spending - although Mercatus says "Idaho could ... improve its record here," which gets no argument from me -, comparatively relaxed gun control laws, and no regulations on private or home schooling. The Center does point out that, in Idaho, "Individual income taxes are actually rather high," so there is clearly room to make things better.
But this study reminds us we have many reasons to be grateful to live in Idaho, and plenty of incentive to work to keep it that way. Our mission at the IVA is to keep working to make Idaho the friendliest place in the world to raise a family, and we'd like to see Idaho in time occupy the top spot on the freedom poll.
Mercatus Center at George Mason University - Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom (http://www.mercatus.org/PublicationDetails.aspx?id=26154)
According to a new study released by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Idaho is the fourth best state in the country in offering personal and economic freedom to its residents.
So if you think it's bad here, imagine what it would be like to be stuck in Rhode Island, New Jersey, or New York, which bring up the rear.
Significantly, there is a strong correlation between conservatism and freedom on the one hand and liberalism and bondage on the other. The states that are most free tend to be the most conservative politically: S. Dakota, Colorado, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Arizona, Virginia and N. Dakota join Idaho in the top ten, while the least free states are without exception bastions of statism run wild: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, Hawaii and California all have the dubious honor of being in the bottom ten.
This gives the lie to the myth that conservatives are the repressive ones. The truth, as is often the case, turns out to be the exact opposite. The more liberal a state is, the less likely it is to offer its residents genuine personal and financial freedom.
The basic instinct of the conservative is to be left alone, while the basic instinct of the liberal is to meddle. Conservatives have a high regard for individual autonomy, choice and personal responsibility, while statists, thinking they are smarter than everybody in the room, want to dictate lifestyle choices to as many of the benighted and unwashed masses as possible.
Freedom as defined by the Center is "the ability to dispose of one's own life, liberty and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual's ability to do the same."
New York, the least free state in the union, has the highest taxes in the country, high spending on social services, extremely high government debt, restrictive gun laws, and burdensome home school regulations.
Idaho, in contrast, has the lowest government debt ratio in the U.S., below average taxes and spending - although Mercatus says "Idaho could ... improve its record here," which gets no argument from me -, comparatively relaxed gun control laws, and no regulations on private or home schooling. The Center does point out that, in Idaho, "Individual income taxes are actually rather high," so there is clearly room to make things better.
But this study reminds us we have many reasons to be grateful to live in Idaho, and plenty of incentive to work to keep it that way. Our mission at the IVA is to keep working to make Idaho the friendliest place in the world to raise a family, and we'd like to see Idaho in time occupy the top spot on the freedom poll.
Mercatus Center at George Mason University - Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom (http://www.mercatus.org/PublicationDetails.aspx?id=26154)