March 15, 2009
A State of Unfreedom
Justin Katz
I intend to spend a little more time perusing the report titled Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom (PDF), put out by the George Mason University Mercatus Center, but Rhode Island's predictable rankings, among the 50 states, are notable without extensive commentary:
- Fiscal policy: 41
- Regulatory policy: 48
- Economic freedom: 42
- Personal freedom: 47
- Overall freedom: 48
Overall, only New Jersey and New York are less free than Rhode Island. And regarding overall freedom, it's not surprising that the scatter plot on page 21 shows a precipitous drop when the percentage of the vote going to the Democrat nominee for president (in 2004) exceeds 50%.