Midas left off one growth opportunity; smuggling illegals across the border! I think this government is helping to wipe out the middle class. That's the real issue here; between outsourcing and illegal immigration, 20 years from now this country is third world. So we all have 20 years to make some money. China and India will be the new superpowers, and all these wonderful American "multinationals" will move overseas. This country is Brazil in 25 years.
For comparison the USA is ranked #12. http://www.heritage.org/research/fe...x/countries.cfm Stop fooling yourself that american companies are going to china for freedoms or superior economic policies. The name of the game is Cheap Labor and nothing else. Having said that I can only add that China is doing good for themselves. At our expense. It's not their fault, it's our own fault. By the time we collectively realize it it's going to be too late. ................................................................................................. I do not know who heritage.org is... But the US is so full of legal constraints that it is legal largesse that makes up over 30% of all prices that you pay... Furthermore...every entrepreneurial endeavor carries a legal largesse mandate...to the degree that the business endeavor could be wiped out any day for legal nonsense.... I know of countries on the list that are supposedly less free than the US...but having experience in several countries..there is no doubt that the US has more..not less...legal barriers that are business backbreakers.... Because of US legal largesse...and its antiquated tax system...the US will not be able to compete as well as it could... You remove legal largesse...and put in a consumption tax...and the US will be unstoppable...forever...amen....
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute - a think tank - whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom marks its 11th anniversary. The 2005 Index of Economic Freedom measures 161 countries against a list of 50 independent variables divided into 10 broad factors of economic freedom. Low scores are more desirable. The higher the score on a factor, the greater the level of government interference in the economy and the less economic freedom a country enjoys. These 50 variables are grouped into the following categories: * Trade policy, * Fiscal burden of government, * Government intervention in the economy, * Monetary policy, * Capital flows and foreign investment, * Banking and finance, * Wages and prices, * Property rights, * Regulation, and * Informal market activity. Obviously your extensive personal experience completely invalidates the results of this Heritage/Wall Street Journal research.
While there are some issues certainly, I think the Heritage data is reasonably good. But I think you have to look at not only the relative score, but also the direction. The scoring systems doesn't go back 30 years, but if they did I'm sure you would see China at or near the 5.0 (worst) range, while now they are at 3.5. That is a huge positive increase in economic freedom, which IMO has increased their productivity and thus standard of living / wages. -Taric
ahhh yes, the tired mantra of "growth! growth!".... unfortunately, that flies in face of PHYSICAL REALITY. it is also unwise to invest at the top....and if you look at a 'chart' of 'growth' for the past, say, 200 yrs; one really must conclude that this has been a parabolic "blowoff top" in growth... growth is a poor model to base plans on today, because of several underlying fundamental issues: - entire growth-era was fed by limitless cheap energy. that's gone now. - massive population growth has saturated the carrying-capacity of the planet. if you look at aquifer-depletion and topsoil-loss charts, you will realize that the "growth" you're cheering on has been done at the expense of our bio-support system "savings account". It is NOT sustainable. In fact, food production, like oil-production is flat-topping as we speak.... - sociopolitical model has been continuously moving towards centralization and concentration of power; which leads to dramatic reductions of innovation and productivity. A strangled populace is a strangled economy. in fact, THE single biggest "growth" industry of the past 50 years has been... . . Gubmint ! i.e. a bloodsucking parasititic affliction known for destroying its own host. So, the biggest growth 'industry' right now is the self-destruction of our society and economic structure. MASSIVE propaganda machinery blasts thought-destroying and dishonest mesages into your head with every flicker of the screen....every subtly slanted article in the NYT, WaPo, et al.. Citizens' decision-making becomes ever more irrational and self-destructive.... this too is on an exponential upwards curve....a blowoff-top of parasite-growth coupled with societal destruction, if you will. in fact, Gubmint growth/concentration makes a FINE "leading-indicator"... virtually all of the fields of "opportunity" listed in that post are completely dependent on cheap energy, resources, and travel. Every one of them are currently at their 'top'. Many of them are -already- rolling over in other countries slightly ahead of the US in the cycle...i.e. Japan, UK, Australia...