You may be shocked to discover that your freedoms are being oppressed right now as you read this.
This morning, Twitter was buzzing about the Mercatus Center’s latest rankings of Freedom in the 50 States. Rounding out the top 5 slots in descending order are Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and South Dakota. And the number one MOST FREE state according to this year’s rankings? The great shining beacon on the hill known as North Dakota! That’s right. North Dakota. As Mercatus explains:
North Dakota, according to the freedom index, is the freest state in the United States. It scores exceptionally well on regulatory and fiscal policy. Moreover, North Dakota scores slightly above average on personal freedom. It is also the state that improved the most over the last decade. …
North Dakota scores well in a few personal freedom areas but has much room for improvement. Gun control laws are fairly relaxed. Alcohol regulations are light, while tax rates on beer and wine are average and spirits taxes are fairly low. Cigarette taxes are low but smoking bans exist, with exemptions for bars and restaurants. Motorists also operate with relative freedom, except for sobriety checkpoints and (most notably) the personal injury coverage mandate.
Emphasis mine.
If you are curious about the personal freedom factor, you have to keep in mind that the “Freedom Index” basically measures how low taxes are, how little businesses are regulated and how often you can walk around brandishing your six-shooter. So the freedom to not have your uterus heavily regulated by the state doesn’t rank very high, sorry.
But what about the bottom of the list? Basically it is all the heathen liberal states. Despite securing its soda freedom, New York is ranked dead last. They sort of acknowledge you can gay marry there, but beyond that it is basically Stalin’s Russia in the eyes of the Freedom Index. At #49 is of course California, because it “heavily taxes and regulates its economy” and “aggressively interferes in the personal lives of its citizens”(!), for example:
California was the first state to enact a smoking ban in restaurants and bars, but the ban is slightly less strict than those since adopted in other states. Travel freedom is low due to a primary seat belt law, motorcycle and bicycle helmet laws, a statewide primary-enforcement cell phone driving ban, an open-container law, and sobriety checkpoints. Little gambling is allowed.
Personal travel freedom is party infringed by a seat belt law and sobriety checkpoints? The Freedom Index has some hard calculus to break.
As you would expect, all the least free states are also the wealthiest and most populated while the most free are basically where no one wants to live. There’s also a user-generated “Bachelor Party” category where Massachusetts(???) tops the list.
The Mercatus Center is a classic market-orientated think tank; meaning it takes a libertarian approach to everything while hating taxes and supporting policies that benefit the wealthy. The Mercatus Center is part of public university of George Mason and affiliated with the Koch family, who at the time of this writing haven’t relocated to their businesses to North Dakota.
Image via Charmingelements.
