From: Steven Forbes <X@Y.com>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,or.politics,can.politics,talk.politics.guns,rec.arts.tv,alt.atheism
Subject: Canada Is 4 Positions Ahead of USA in the 2023 Human Freedom Index According To Rightist Cato and Fraser Institutes
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2024 16:02:09 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Page 5
Canada is 13th, USA 17th.
Click here to read the full report: The Human Freedom Index 2023
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/human-freedom-index-
2023-web-15684.pdf
Canada Rises To 13th Place In Latest Human Freedom Index
December 29, 2023 9:05 am by Fraser Institute
As a result of increasing restrictions on liberties in Hong Kongonce among
the freest places on earthit now ranks 46th in the latest Human Freedom
Index report, released this month by Canadas Fraser Institute and the
U.S.-based Cato Institute.
As recently as 2010, Hong Kong was the 3rd freest jurisdiction on earth.
Mainland China has always been less free than the territory and this year,
China ranks 149th out of 165 jurisdictions.
Freedom has suffered a precipitous decline in Hong Kong, but its tragic
descent into oppression provides important lessons about the value of
freedom, said Fred McMahon, resident fellow at the Fraser Institute and
co-author of this years report.
The index measures personal freedomthe rule of law, safety and security,
identity and relationships (i.e. the freedom to choose your relationship
partner), freedom of movement, speech, assembly and religionalongside
economic freedom, the ability of individuals to make their own economic
decisions.
This years report ranks 165 jurisdictions around the world. It finds that
from 2019 to 2021 (the latest year of available data), 89.8 per cent of the
worlds population experienced a decline in freedom.
In Hong Kong, the areas that show the most pronounced declines in this
years report are: The rule of law, freedom of expression, and freedom of
association and assembly.
Suppression in Hong Kong continues to ramp up as the jailing of
journalists and pro-freedom advocates grows, with arrest warrants issued
for exiled activists to quash even overseas dissent, said Ian Vásquez,
report co-author and vice president of international studies at the Cato
Institute.
Switzerland, once again, tops this years freedom ranking followed by New
Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, Estonia and Sweden (tied for 5th). The five
least-free countries are (in descending order) Iran, Myanmar, Sudan, Yemen
and Syria.
Overall worldwide rankings for other significant countries include Taiwan
(12), Canada (13), Japan (16), the United Kingdom and the United States
(tied at 17), Germany (21), South Korea (28), France (39), Ukraine (83)
Mexico (95), and India (109).
Crucially, people in freer jurisdictions are more prosperous than those in
less-free jurisdictions. For example, the average per-capita income for the
top-quartile of jurisdictions on the index was US$47,421 compared to US
$14,157 for the least-free quartile in 2021.
Human freedom increases prosperity and human well-being and has powered
the growth of some of the most remarkable jurisdictions in the world,
including Hong Kong, McMahon said.
The complete index, a joint project of the Fraser Institute and the Cato
Institute, is available as a free PDF download at www.fraserinstitute.org.
The co-authors of the report are Ian Vásquez, Fred McMahon, Ryan Murphy,
associate professor, Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom, Southern
Methodist University, and Guillermina Sutter Schneider, data scientist and
former research and project director at the Cato Institute.
https://kingsvilletimes.ca/2023/12/canada-rises-to-13th-place-in-latest-
human-freedom-index/