Which Countries Are The Most Free Economically

We are used to thinking of the United States as the Land of the Free. Freedom does not only mean political freedom, but more especially, it means economic freedom. Economic freedom is the basis of all other freedoms. Without a free economy, a nation cannot have a strong economy, or a strong military, and without a strong military, it cannot have the freedom to pursue its cultural and social ideals within its national boundaries and the world.

Since the late 1980's The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal have been compiling a set of fifty economic indicators and called the result the "Index of Economic Freedom" and applied it to 161 countries of the world.

Ana Isabel Eiras, a Senior Policy Analyst at The Heritage Foundation analyzes the 2005 result of the Index of Economic Freedom. She writes that the Index shows that the United States is loosing its economic freedom. It is no longer in the top ten of the most economically free countries in the world. Other countries such as Australia, Chile, and Iceland have surpassed the U.S.A. in economic freedom. Among the main reasons for this are high taxes and high government spending.