In the first part of this series of posts I identified two separate questions associated with whether The United States was still the freest place in the world to live. The first question was to answer whether the U.S. still the freest country to live in. The second question is contingent on the first answer being yes. If it is the freest place then the second question is how do you live in this new America in a way that maximizes your actual freedom here. Because without a plan it is unlikely that it will feel very free.
This post is meant to answer that first question. I looked around at some of the other places in the world and asked whether they were more or less free than the U.S. And I think I’ll have to say that there are other places that would feel freer than here. I’ll try to explain how I came up with this answer.
One of the first thing I decided was that if the standard of living of the country in question was close to first world conditions, then I would not fault the “freedom” quotient on that account. For instance, I would rate most countries in Europe as an acceptable economy to compare to the U.S. whereas some place like Haiti or North Korea would be unacceptable. Looked at this way, places like Argentina and Chile and even Costa Rica might be acceptable places to live because the infrastructure exists to enjoy a decent life.
The next question is whether a country enjoys freedom of speech. And it is understood that this is relative to what currently exists in the United States. Though we technically have complete freedom of speech in the United States that is far from a true statement when you take into account the effects of woke practices on employment and the “hate speech” laws that although technically unconstitutional are unchallenged in multiple jurisdictions throughout Blue America. Looked at from that point of view there are plenty of places that have the same or more freedom of speech as the United States. Certainly, there are many places in Europe where the woke thought police are even more rabid than in this country but places like the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, for instance, are not among them. And these countries are not in the clutches of the LGBTQ mafia. And they are all opposed to illegal immigration. And finally, the Czech Republic even has gun rights that come close to what we have in the United States.
So, my cursory survey of other countries that might provide a freer environment than the U.S. seems to say that there may in fact be choices. And it is understood that none of these places are as prosperous as the United States or possess all the advantages that this country possesses. But what they do have is a less leftist outlook and a lack of woke public policy. And since this is just a cursory examination, my next step is to look at these Eastern European countries to see whether the reality matches the appearance.
And if anyone out there has information on these three places and other candidate countries, please leave information in the comments.