* Please excuse another serious rant on the important stuff in life today. I'll get back to posting lighter fare and nonsense soon.
In light of yesterday being the 4th of July and our country celebrating the founding of our great country, I want to talk about freedom.
Seems apropos to do so now, right?
We puff out our chests every year at this time and congratulate ourselves on being Americans and being the "Land of the Free".
But how free are you really?
Let's look at your economic freedom, shall we?
Brought to you by the fine folks at Bankrupting American.....
See a large view HERE.
When will the endless appetite for redundant and stifling legislation at both the state and federal level stop?
When they have driven all businesses(except the megamillion ones)out and more than half of Americans can no longer find jobs?
Here's a great little site to poke around at. I caution you though, as what you may find there may challenge your concept of freedom and how free you, as an American citizen, really are, compared to other Americans.
There was a fairly comprehensive study done at George Mason University comparing each states' level of freedom in many categories. The states were then ranked #1-50 on each point, as well as given a ranking for their overall Level of Freedom for each citizen wherein.
Go have a look at the data HERE.
You can click on each category that was measured and see how you, as a resident of whichever state, rank in our country's Freedom index.
Here in Pennsylvania, we got an overall ranking of 31st out of 50. We got a better score than all of our neighbors except for Delaware. But considering that we border some of the most unfree states in American(New York, New Jersey, Connecticut & Maryland)THAT isn't saying much!
The least free states in America are, in order from 50th to 46th....New York, California, New Jersey, Hawaii and Rhode Island.
The most free states overall are, in order from 1st to 5th......North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, New Hampshire and Oklahoma.
Of course this study is using data from 2011, but it does show a general trend of how the states compare to each other at present.
So how does your state rank?
Are you surprised by it's ranking on any of the categories measured?
Do you still feel "free" after reading this?
Sluggy
