The good news is that the United States made the top 10 in the just-released "2006 Index of Economic Freedom" by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. The bad news is that this republic almost didn't.
Economic freedom measures how unconstrained ordinary people are to engage in all levels of economic activity, according to the study. Typically over time, the more freedom, the better quality of life. The study is available online at www.heritage.org .
Hong Kong, with a population of roughly 7 million in an area about six times the size of Washington, D.C., tops the list. The former British colony and now the special administrative region of the Republic of China is treated as a country in this study. China and Zambia are tied at 111.
Singapore is second followed by Ireland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Estonia and Denmark. And in a tie for ninth, Australia, New Zealand and America.
More troubling than the ranking is that America's freedom ranking has been trending down since 1995. And when ranked solely by the fiscal burden of government, America nose-dived from 50th in 1997 to its current rank of 101.
The domestic automobile industry is the latest reminder that complacency can lead to a false sense of security. America must right-size its government -- now -- before the rest of the world zooms by.
