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U.S. personal freedom ranking slips below France

Land of the simi-free and home of the ???

Quote:

Americans' assessments of their personal freedom have significantly declined under President Obama, according to a new study from the Legatum Institute in London, and the United States now ranks below 20 other countries on this measure.

The research shows that citizens of countries including France, Uruguay, and Costa Rica now feel that they enjoy more personal freedom than Americans.

As the Washington Examiner reported this morning, representatives of the Legatum Institute are in the U.S. this week to promote the sixth edition of their Prosperity Index. The index aims to measure aspects of prosperity that typical gross domestic product measurements don’t include, such as entrepreneurship and opportunity, education, and social capital.

The freedom scores are based on polling data from 2013 indicating citizens’ satisfaction with their nation's handling of civil liberties, freedom of choice, tolerance of ethnic minorities, and tolerance of immigrants. Polling data were provided by Gallup World Poll Service. The index is notable for the way it measures how free people feel, unlike other freedom indices that measure freedom by comparing government policies.

“This is not a good report for Obama,” Legatum Institute spokeswoman Cristina Odone told the Washington Examiner.

In the 2010 report (which relied on data gathered in 2009), the U.S. was ranked ninth in personal freedom, but that ranking has since fallen to 21st, with several countries, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom passing the U.S.

The nation’s overall personal freedom score has declined by 17 percent since 2009, with a 22 percent drop in combined civil liberty and free choice contributing to that decline.

Of the eight categories in the index, personal freedom was America's second lowest performance relative to other countries. The U.S. had its lowest ranking when it came to safety and security (a broad measure of how threatened citizens feel in instances such as walking late at night, or expressing their opinions) — ranking 31st out of 142 countries.

The cross-country comparisons in the index should be taken with a grain of salt. The perception of what freedom means in New Zealand, which has the highest personal freedom ranking, may vary from how Americans measure their own personal freedom. But regardless of how the U.S. compares to other countries, there is no denying that Americans felt less free in 2013 after four more years of Obama’s presidency. And so now he faces the embarrassment of being the president that made Americans feel less free than the French.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/un...rticle/2556322

Quote:

feel that they enjoy more personal freedom

...Lies, damned lies, and statistics... - Benjamin Disraeli

I can with some confidence say, that from my experience the average American CARES far more about their personal freedoms, then the other countries I have lived in, all of which are on that list.

IMHO this is a poor analysis, comparing apples with oranges.

S

Almost all of the countries in front of the U.S. are socialist in nature. Sounds more of opinion stated as fact.

Besides, it says that freedom under the Obama admin. Of course it ranks lower.

Hey, sounds like the propaganda machines are working. As long as the citizens think they are free, then they must be right?

How many of those countries can you fully exercise the rights we are guaranteed by our Constitution.

We are not perfect, nor as free as our founders intended, but I think we are well ahead of many of the countries in front of the U.S. on this list.

Can you buy and carry a firearm to defend youself in those countries?

Can you openly criticize the government there?

Etc., etc.

TR

Notice how Hong Kong is on the list on its own.

...hm

Anyone ever tried to go deer hunting in Germany?
Or buy a pistil in Australia
or an AR-15 in the UK

...yep, that list is DRIPPING with personal freedoms

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Reaper (Post 568070)

and

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billy L-bach (Post 568080)

...hm

Anyone ever tried to go deer hunting in Germany?
Or buy a pistil in Australia
or an AR-15 in the UK

...yep, that list is DRIPPING with personal freedoms

THIS!

Well said, and thank you.

While I don't disagree about the posts concerning firearms and the protection we are afforded in this country by the 2nd Amendment, as well as the others that protect and grant rights to the individual, but do you really feel "more free" than you did say, 20 years ago?

Yes, that list does indeed have MANY socialist countries listed above ours and I'm sure that they are "less free" than we are today, but considering that we are s-l-o-w-l-y sinking down that "rabbit hole", are we really better off?

Today, you MUST buy health insurance or be fined.
Today, you must either get patted down (felt up) or go through a body scanner at an airport just to fly .... your kids and grandkids as well.
Today, we have "security" personal running those pat downs and body scanners at those airports, by people who probably couldn't get hired on at Burger King or MacDonald's.
Today, there are areas in the country where you must now pay a "bag fee" to put your groceries in when you go shopping. If you don't have one now, stand by ... it's coming soon to a town or village near you.
Today, we have small business owners who can't run their shops/stores the way they want to. I bring up the bakeries that don't want to make a wedding cake for the homosexual couple based on that store owners religious beliefs. But is now FORCED to do so or else face reprisals from the government.
Today, we have "special interest groups/thugs" dictating how we live our lives ... Mom's Demand Attention .... errrr .... Action, comes to mind.

There are plenty of other examples out there.
How many can you think of that make us "less free" than what we were 20 years ago?

Meh. Another angst-guided poll of personal opinions fueled by incessant blogospheric blathering and the unyielding pessimism of the likes of ill flushbowel and company. My anecdotally arrived at opinion only.

FWIW - although I have neither experienced nor felt any such significant lessening of such personal freedoms in my lifetime, I have - with age and experience - become far more aware of what those freedoms entail, of how much freedom we enjoy compared to so much of the rest of the world, and of how much more many of those 'constitutionally guaranteed' freedoms are being experienced today by a greater number of segments of our society which were denied them in the past.

YMMV - and so it goes...

Richard