Where Has Our Economic Freedom Gone?

             The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns economic freedom. The Heritage Foundation released its annual Index of Economic Freedom in February. The United States dropped to 25^th place, which is the lowest ranking for the U.S. in the history of the index. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has an explanation for the decline for America: economic freedom declined along with other freedoms during the pandemic. 

Anytime you see other freedoms infringed, I think economic freedoms are deteriorating at the same time, because of government action….

You saw people being told that they couldn’t go to church because they couldn’t do all sorts of things, that they had to wear a mask in public, that they had to have a procedure they may or may not want, or may or may not need based on their own medical history, and natural immunity…. Anytime you see those things happening, you see a corresponding diminution of economic liberty.

Economic freedom was diminished as government churned out trillions of dollars that it didn’t have, just printing it off, as regulations affected businesses, told businesses they would have to fire anyone who didn’t defer to a presidential medical orthodoxy as it relates to the vaccine mandates…. So, these are all examples of how economic freedom has diminished with a particular pace over the last two years.

            The Biden administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress have weakened our economic freedom with their bad policies. By spending trillions of dollars that our nation did not have and increasing regulations, they contributed to the 7% national inflation and further weakened the economy.