How Free Is America?
Americans are accustomed to thinking of themselves as the freest people on Earth. Except that according to the Heritage Foundation’s 2011 Index of Economic Freedom, the United States stands at a dismal 9th in international rankings for economic liberty, embarrassingly behind social democracies like New Zealand (4th) and Canada (6th) and well behind Asian powerhouses Hong Kong and Singapore (first and second, respectively).
It is safe to say that these depressing stats would come as no surprise to the higher-ups at Boeing, who had the temerity to act as if they were a private company operating in a free market when they decided to relocate the company’s 787 Dreamliner assembly from Washington state to a new production facility in South Carolina.This new relationship was poised to be mutually beneficial — South Carolina would get about 1,000 new jobs, Boeing a less regulated, less unionized — read: cheaper — business climate in which to operate.
But it was not to be. In April, Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint against Boeing to block the move and thwart the South Carolina relocation, charging that Boeing’s decision constitutes an unlawful retaliation against the unionized workers of Washington state.
Boeing contends it simply cannot afford the constant work stoppages of the Washington unions (roughly one every three years over the past decade), and no wonder: In 2008 alone, a strike instigated by the International Association of Machinists (IAM) lasted 39 days and accrued roughly 1,053,000 in lost work days for some 27,000 employees in Washington, Oregon, and Kansas. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “Some analysts have estimated that the shutdown of jet production during the work stoppage cost Boeing more than $2 billion in profits.” Ouch. One can hardly blame the company for looking toward the warmer climes and more attractive labor market of South Carolina, one of the 22 states with so-called “right-to-work” laws forbidding the compulsory unionization of workers.
ask a potential tourist (tourism has been destroyed) – no normal person is going to be fingerprinted and body-scanned and interrogated by a shufflebutt when there are plenty of attractions to see in hundreds of countries all over the world.
If you can chew gum in Singapore now it was some Civil Rights epiphany cuz you couldn’t do it in 1986 when I was there so that’s not so free.
There is no such thing as a lawn in Hong Kong and when the wind blows right you can smell a billion commies. In Canada if muslims and black rape more women than anyone else and I say so I can be brought up on charges and New Zealand is so far away no one cares if it’s free; Mars is free – so what.
America is very free: if you pretend you don’t speak English you can build a squatter shanty town and get the gov’t to provide sewage and electricity and tennis courts too and you don’t get written up for speeding tickets or need an ID or anything.
Unlike Canada, if you engage in hate speech in the U.S. you get tenured at Syracuse and Princeton University and make a lot on the lecture circuit and are considered a pundit.
..amen
still there is something to the report and the freedoms the other countries do have are tied to the fact that the USA has set an example that the citizens of those “free-er” countries follow. cann’t have one without the other as I am sure will become horrifyingly clear if the policies of the fraudster obama are not reversed.
Is that you Boy James?
Cuz…? Cuz…!
Sorry, I’m an idiot.
“..and New Zealand is so far away no one cares if it’s free”
I do!
That’s one of the wittiest and cleverest comments I’ve read in awhile. Bravo. And, not surprisingly, there is a profound point beneath the humor.
Companies like Boing who are shackled to union contracts in the US are better off in other countries. There is no question that Barry is responsible for our country’s economic woes. He celebrates and subsidizes unions, which drive out jobs, and demonizes any person who is wealthy and any industry that makes a profit. He doesn’t deserve reelection but then he’s never been a champion of anyone getting what they deserve.
Just wait and see how “free” this country is if Obamacare is NOT overturned by the Supreme Court. If that law is held up and it remains the law of the land, Federalism really will be over. The Federal Government will be able to mandate anything. What insurance you can have, what you can eat, where you can live, even what kind of car you can drive or what kind of house you can live in.
If this law stands, the Federal Government will tell you how much you can weigh (becuase they now provide your health insurance), what you can eat (if it makes you gain weight, you will be “discouraged” from eating it, probably through higher taxes on food), the type of house you can live in (it had better be “energy efficient,” or else it will be taxed to death making you unable to sell it at a reasonable price), what you can drive (what’s to stop the Feds from MAKING you buy a crappy electric car and placing outrageous taxes on conventional cars), what cars are made (if they own Government Motors, why can’t they force them to make only electric cars), and probably what you even can wear (only clothing that comes from a certain country, like China, since they are our largest trading partner). The Government can and will mandate anything it wants and the states will not have a single thing to say about it, let alone the average person.
This is government tyranny at its worse and it will make the United States look more like the Soviet Union rather than the America that we were used to as kids. Why do I say the Soviet Union? Because, as in the Soviet Union, YOU will be forced to live the way the government wants you to live, but the privileged few, those “special” members of government, will be allowed to live any way THEY want to live. This is how civil wars are started. I really, really, don’t think Obama and his minions understand how far to the left they have pushed this country and how angry people are. Well, they’re about to get a fast education in 2012. Count on it.
Oh please, please,please be right.
Excellent post and I am sure you are right.
Obama and the democratics are a miserable failure for Democracy. The second worst option is the Republicans – where were they when it was time to help Boeing and freedom ? The 2012 results may rescue the country from Socialism and corruption by replacing it with ineptitude and a more passive form of socialism. A third party may be the only way out but both the Dems and Repubs will try to kill it. We are witnessing the death of democracy on a daily basis thanks to the balance shifting from the Productive to the Dependents. Welcome to the new slavery – Obama’s dream come true.
Just as it took Republicans to destroy the republic, it is taking Democrats to
destroy the democracy which replaced it. Abe Lincoln said that America could
only be defeated from within. Though I hold Lincoln in low esteem for many things, I give him his due for his observation on this.
With respect to my colleague Libertyship, anger is not enough. Americans have been angry before…and have acquiesced to tyranny even so. Probably the best example is the Eighteenth Amendment and the legislation it enabled.
Anger frustrated sufficiently long devolves into despair.
We are no longer a self-organizing, Battle of Athens-type people. We’ve come to need leader figures to galvanize us and marshal us for battle. I hate to say it, but without such a leader figure to rouse us and chivy us into action, we will accept ObamaCare, cap-and-trade, 62% tax rates, and everything else the statists of our political class care to hang around our necks.
The lack of charismatic leadership qualities in the current contenders for the GOP’s presidential nomination (Herman Cain excepted) is one of the reasons my outlook has darkened in recent months. We need someone to light our fires — someone who not only has the right principles, and can articulate them with verve, but whom we can trust with our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Because the work, and the risks, will be ours — all of us.
Someone like this:
Are you?
it is much too bad we can’t have a president with those qualities, but as long as there are more dopeheads and deadbeats voting than there are ernest hard working people we are going to have just what we have. election day should be a national goliday so the working men and women can go to the polls and vote, it should be mandatory they be paid for this holiday as long as the show proof they voted,
Mr. Porretto,
I am ready. I am ready, even though it is likely that at 50 years of age I will be one of those whose job may no longer be essential. So be it. I have long since accepted that all of the money I paid into Social Security over the last 35 years, MY money, is gone. Now I must do whatever I can to help ensure a future for my child, and for those to come. I don’t plan on ever retiring. What I had once naively thought was safely invested for that purpose is all but gone. Now I am prepared to work until I die. I hope that I am able to. And I pray that I do not have to die literally fighting to restore this country to its past glory, but I am also prepared to just that.
I am ready.
Please provide the title of the work from which that excerpt came. I would like to read it.
Woodsman
It’s from a soon-to-be-released novel, third in a series, titled Shadow Of A Sword. (The first two are Chosen One and On Broken Wings.) Watch Amazon and SmashWords for the release, which should occur in August or September.
Somewhere deep in the bowels of Czarland, DC, an ObaMinion is drafting an Executive Waiver…um, Order…coming soon to a mail box, inbox, Twitter account near you…
“By opening this Executive Order and reading these brilliant words, you hereby waive all rights to self-determination for yourself and your company. Let me be perfectly clear. You can’t relocate yourself or your business without my approval or that of NLRB. I have ordered Immigration to close all domestic borders leading to right-to-work states to prevent a dangerous influx of undocumented entrepreneurs.
To receive our exclusive one-time Waiver waiver, you must provide incontrovertible documentation of qualifying political donations (e.g., WTF! campaign, DNC, Rangel Legal Defense Fund, BOMO Retirement Fund, etc.) You must join a union. You must buy healthcare coverage. You must agree to be groped by Rep. Weiner and/or a TSA representative…”
While they have economic freedom, they have little to no personal freedom. In other words, the people are “milch cows” that exist to fill the states coffers with cash. With the exception of Hong Kong, those above us pay enormous tax rates.
That said, this in no way exonerates the US and the economic fascism/cronyism that prevails here. And still, saying “We’re the best country in the world” isn’t really saying much.
Hertiage Foundation
what basis do they use their bias in the rating.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
If you are going to criticize something, please use complete sentences with at least the basics of correct grammar. Is this even a criticism?
If a real honest, patriotic leader who was charismatic enough to lead a nation back to the founding documents of our great nation, we of course would think about it and study the alternatives and then agree that yes, she is too divisive.
It’s sad the Boeing case has again been mischaracterized. NO WORK IS BEING MOVED FROM WASHINGTON TO South Carolina. Additional lines are being built closer to the fabrication plants for other parts (GE in North Carolina, among others), with the majority of planes still built in Washington. The South Carolina Line will only build 3 additional planes a year.
The BP oil spill could have been mitigated with foreign offers of expert help, but no; That would upset the unions. It required Obama to suspend an act which GWB suspended to get help during Katrina.
Another billion dollar union-protection act is O’s refusal to ratify free trade treaties with Columbia, Panama and S. Korea.
He stole $26 billion from Chrysler bond holders and gave it to the union.
And speaking of freedom, since Yankees came to the South, there will never be an era like “My Dog Skip”. Now you get fined $1,000 for hearsay accusations your dog was “at large”.
There is no political solution to an economic problem.
To survive, the US, or at least its solvent sovereign States,
must produce enough new wealth to pay the bills, pay our debts,
and give the rest of the world hope that the change will continue.
@10. spqr2008,
Not only is the Boeing case mischaracterized, it is a downright lie by omission of facts. Boeing is actually CREATING an additional 2,000 jobs in Washington, not cutting anything from the state at all.
What is absolutely amazing is that there are a growing number of home grown union idiots in South Carolina who actually agree with the NLRB decision. I should know, I live in South Carolina and keep up with what is going on in the state.
The governor will not sign the agreement with Amazon for a 5 year sales tax collection exemption and her lack of endorsement almost cost the state an opportunity to create a 2,000 job pool increase plus the ancillary businesses that will be built to support Amazon. Luckily, the state senate and house had enough common sense to vote on the measure again and pass it the second time around.
The opposition was sponsored and paid for by WalMart, Target, and a few other national chains plus it had the backing of the Tea Party. How is that for a kick in the head by a group of political activists who are supposedly for the average man and woman on Main Street? Our good governor never did acknowledge the exact reason for her opposition. What she should have told SC citizens is that her family owns a business, Exotic International, a women’s clothing business that does $1.5 million in sales annually.
This is what the people are facing every day. Politicians from both sides nailing us to the wall for personal gain and agrandizement. Apparently, once one enters into the political activists world, they lose any sense of reason and credibility.
I have no faith in any of the pretenders out there today.
FYI: Bachmann Addresses Security Provisions in the Patriot Act.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mos0blynBiI&fe…
When you want to know how, and why crazy things are happening. This is the means by which bureaucrats can do anything.
There is a Big Difference between the greatest country in the World, and the “best” or most free country in the World. This is best understood by a thought experiment: suppose that New Hampshire or Delaware or Texas seceded from the USA, or Alberta seceded from Canada: they could easily become the most free countries in the World, but would they be the greatest?
(Texans would like to think so, I suppose…)
Also, look at the countries more free than the USA according to the Heritage Foundation: put them together, and their population is much less than that of the USA. In short, Americans have nothing to be ashamed of .. but if this post shakes some of them out of their complacency, that’s good.
As a footnote, I think that the freetheworld.com index is more reliable than that of the Heritage Foundation. I also think that neither index is very reliable: the freedom that has the greatest direct impact on the vast majority of people is the freedom to buy or sell, let or rent a home; and this is seriously under-rated in both indexes.
Actually, the US has much to be ashamed of. It is the most successful, the most dynamic, the most equal, the most prosperous, and formerly the freest and happiest country in the world, is committing slow suicide.
I say that as a lifetime staunch admirer of the US, who hopes, for the world’s sake, that you turn it round.
My favorite to date is Obama saying that since corporations are making record profits, they should hire people. Really? Is that why corporations hire people? I thought it was because they had a market for their goods or services.
If my understanding of the Boeing/NLRB standoff is accurate, than this article isn’t. The Boeing operation in the Carolinas is a second Dreamliner plant in addition to the Seattle base, which has actually recently added staff. And Boeing in it’s defense is certainly not making any anti union arguments. All of which makes the govment interference even more preposterous.
Obama is waging a war against business in the U.S. and then he wonders why nobody is hiring and UNEMPLOYMENT has shot back up to 9.1%. The actions of the NLRB are nothing less than a payoff to the unions by Obama. He expects billions in support from them for his reelection bid. He doesn’t even seem to care that his massive corrupt spending, Mountains of debt, and open hostility to business are killing the slow recovery that we already had and leaving millinos and millions UNEMPLOYED> The extreme arrogant left wing Elites of this nation, like Obama, think the government can do anything and everything without destroying the economy of our nation. They are wrong, and Obama has made everything worse!!!
This was the plan all along… elect Obama, change America into a third world country……
Hows that working for ya?
VOTE CONSERVATIVE 2012
All articles that I have previously read stated that Boeing was not relocating but expanding into SC. If Boeing were relocating, the unions might have a legal case to make. As this seems not to be the case, it makes the Obama administration’s actions all the more egregious.
Hum, Hong Kong and Singapore come in first and second respectively for economic freedom? Isn’t Singapore that wonderful country that practices corporal punishment, that is to say, public floggings of large European and American children for vandalism? Don’t they have a death penalty for smuggling drugs into their country and regularly use the penalty with gusto? Do they not take border control seriously? So, am I to understand the behavioral principle here is to spare the whip and spoil the free market economy? Torture, in the form of public degradation ceremonies, works? Well, flogging certainly is cheaper than California’s 60,000 dollar a year unit cost to house a 25 to life serial career criminal who would have been executed in any other rational non-Western culture. The American liberal elite’s situational multiculturalism and their selectivity in celebrating diversity is breath taking.
If I were Boeing, if Obama ends up turning down the SC plant, move it overseas!!
Meanwhile, here in Australia, amid calls that sceptics of CAGW should be imprisoned, tatooed or exterminated because they’re haters and violent and frightened of change, protesters hit the streets calling on the minority federal government to tax carbon dioxide.
“Give us less liberty! Give us taxation without representation!”
See Say ‘Yes’ Rally Chants.
A key piece in the article, unless I’m gravely mistaken, is that Boeing was not relocating a 787 line to Charleston as the article states. It was installing a new line to supplement the existing line in Washington state. No jobs were being eliminated in Washington state.
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