Economic Freedom and Quality of Life

The following video attempts to show the positive relation between the high levels of economic freedom and good quality of life.

(video is attached at the bottom)
transcript:

Imagine you had to live in a country from one of these two lists for the rest of your life. Which list would you choose? If you are like most people, you would choose A. Let's take a look at why that is. Take Chile and Venezuela. Chile's poverty rate is half that of Venezuela's. And its inflation rate is a fraction of the size. Actually all of list A appears to be better off than B. Look at income per person, it's 10 times higher on average in list A. But these lists aren't organized by income. They are organized by economic freedom. List A countries have the most free economies in the world. List B, the least free.

Across the globe, we see a strong relationship between economic freedom and peoples' quality of life. For instance, people in the most free countries earn on average over eight times more than the people in the least free. The poor earn ten times more. People in the most free countries are happier. They have better protected civil rights, cleaner environments, and the average person lives twenty years longer. The freest countries also have less corruption, less infant mortality, less child labor, and less unemployment.

So if you care about improving peoples' lives, then you really care about economic freedom. And having economic freedom means your property is protected under an impartial rule of law. You are free to trade with others for what you need and want. Your money keeps its value because your national curency is stable. And government stays small, relative to the size of the economy.

For years, the US was among the World leaders in economic freedom. But oer the last decade. The US's ranking fell and it is projected to keep falling. The question is: will our quality of life fall with it?

If you like this video and want to join the discussion, visit www.facebook.com/economicfreedom