The authors surveyed 180 countries, looking at things like tax burden, property rights, trade freedom, and regulatory efficiency. They then assigned a score from 0-100. The average score is 60.8, which they say is the third-highest level in the 25 years of making their Index.
Let’s start with the bottom five countries:
- Republic of Congo (39.7)
- Eritrea (38.9)
- Cuba (27.8)
- Venezuela (25.9)
- North Korea (5.9)
It’s probably easy to guess the bottom three, and very timely in the midst of the economic turmoil and widespread citizen revolt in Maduro’s Venezuela. It’s also a continued stinging rebuke to the Bernie Sanders’ and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s of the world who peddle their sanitized version of socialism; the “Socialism WILL work if you just do it THIS way” crowd. Sadly, I don’t think the Heritage Index will sway their “Democratic Socialist” minds.
The top ten are as follows:
- Hong Kong (90.2)
- Singapore (89.4)
- New Zealand (84.4)
- Switzerland (81.9)
- Australia (80.9)
- Ireland (80.5)
- United Kingdom (78.9)
- Canada (77.7)
- United Arab Emirates (77.6)
- Taiwan (77.3)
The United States just missed the top ten, coming in 12th with a score of 76.8. This is up six places from 2018, and every speaker at the release event credited President Trump with the increase. They noted the nation’s low unemployment rate and the Administration’s dialing back and the outright elimination of regulatory burdens. They reminded the audience that when governments do less, companies do more, and that there’s no economic challenge that can’t be solved with free market solutions.
Dems and other never-Trumpers want more regulations, less freedom, to the harm of all but the elites.
Blithe Spirit 