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Well, this certainly is no surprise. We all know the Big Government advocates in CA, NY and NJ are in control of those states.
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Florida is the freest (or least unfree, depending on how you look at it) state in the United States? So says North Carolina's John Locke Foundation in its First in Freedom Index, which drew data from a range of sources and found that the state where alligators help keep the yowling, roaming kitty population under control is also notable for officials who generally stay out of your way. Arizona and Indiana round out the top three, while California, New Jersey, and New York serve, unsurprisingly, as black holes of bureaucratic suckage.
It's kind of difficult to debate at all. I checked the methodology, and it seems somewhat arbitrary.
It's a dumb study, anyway. I mean, if I'm offered a $150,000 salary from a company in CA, I'm moving there, and because of that, I'll be much more free than I am here making 70k.
How exactly does one measure freedom? I don't feel like that's ever really be given a unit before, so I feel that there is quite a bit of room for error in determining what state is the most free.
How exactly does one measure freedom? I don't feel like that's ever really be given a unit before, so I feel that there is quite a bit of room for error in determining what state is the most free.
That was my thought, as well. Besides, freedom is somewhat subjective, anyway.
Interesting, the OPs link is to an article that makes several criticisms of the ranking.
And the article points out that freedom is somewhat subjective. Personally, a state that is so heavily influenced by religious fundamentalism would never feel free to me. When my siblings and I were making decisions during my mother's final illness, I thought more than once about terri schiavo, and was very grateful that had someone wanted to interfere, there was exactly *zero* chance that they would have gotten any support from california judges and governor.
"The ultimate score is an average across the categories it examines. Florida, for example, is in first place overall, but at 5 in terms of fiscal policy, 1 in educational freedom, 45 in regulatory freedom, and 30 in healthcare freedom."
Okay. But, being 45th in regulatory freedom doesn't seem very free.
I finally got through the entire study and all their references. Ugh, what a read. Basically, they selected arbitrary data-points to form a conclusion on what can be considered in a freedom-index. They did not measure those data-points against a population sample of any state (or anyone in the nation). They also did not correlate the data-points by what the nations historic documents have defined as freedom (if that's the angle they were going for).
Additionally, this is not a published document and it was not peer-reviewed. The entire study can be dismissed. It won't be empirically cited anywhere.
This is a shame because if they had actually done a proper study, it would have been useful.
The Reason piece cites at least one other state freedom index, and apparently there are others out there (not surprising). And concludes:
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But California, New York, and New Jersey always rank near the bottom of these lists as intrusive, red tape-bound hellholes.
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