United States No Longer Among Top Nations in Protecting Private Property Rights

Capitol Confidential ^ | 8/10/2010 | Russ Harding

[MichCapCon]

According to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom published by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, there are 16 countries that do a better job of protecting private property rights than the United States.

A dismal international ranking of 17 in protecting private property rights should serve as a wake up call to Americans concerned about individual freedom and liberty. It is impossible for a people to remain free without respect for the rule of law and protection of private property rights.

The protection of private property and respect for the rule of law are fundamental constitutional principles, but these bedrock principles are being eroded by the actions of government officials at local, state, and federal levels. The actions of the federal government in running roughshod over the legal rights of secured debtors in the Chrysler and General Motors bankruptcies in order to reward politically favored unions did serious damage to the rule of law and the protection of private property. When state environmental regulators place unreasonable restrictions on the use of private property to protect mud puddles or local government officials severely restrict the use of private property citing "smart growth," Americans become less free...

[Paladin2]

"....rule of law..."

Now we have the (over constrained) rule of too many laws, so we need a dictator.

[Paladin2]

So, list the 16 betters, already.

[sauropod]

read

[abortionisalwaysmurder]

Hello, how about listing the 16 betters, already.

[pas]

Maybe I am missing something followed the link in the article and it show the US as number 8.

[BenKenobi]

http://www.heritage.org/index/

1 Hong Kong 89.7 -0.3
2 Singapore 86.1 -1.0
3 Australia 82.6 0.0
4 New Zealand 82.1 0.1
5 Ireland 81.3 -0.9
6 Switzerland 81.1 1.7
7 Canada 80.4 -0.1
8 United States 78.0 -2.7
9 Denmark 77.9 -1.7
10 Chile 77.2 -1.1

Personally, I agree with this list, except for Canada. Canada doesn’t even have provisions for private property in their constitution.

Anyways, for the ranking:

Labour Freedom

94.8 - USA
81.5 - Canada

That’s a big difference. Unions are much weaker in America.

Business Freedom

96.5 - Canada
91.3 - USA

Canada has lower business taxes.

The so-called ‘Freedom from corruption’ is supposedly lower in Canada, 87 vs 73 for the US, and Financial freedom, 80 to 70.

I also don’t see how Canada has a tax rate of 29 vs 35 for the US. Are they not taking our provincial taxation into account? Our floors are far, far lower for the top bracket.

wrt for corruption:

“The score for this component is derived primarily from Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.”

So it only measures ‘perception’, not actual corruption.

wrt for ‘financial freedom’, they’ve just got arbitrary categories. Frankly, it should be reversed. The Canadian banking system operates as a cartel.

[IrishCatholic]

finance bookmark.

[oyez]

Another 6 more years of ‘Bama and the Democrats and there won't be any more private property.

[Paladin2]

Sweden

Iceland

Luxembourg

Switzerland

Germany

Hong Kong

Finland

Singapore

Canada

Netherlands, The

Australia

Ireland

Denmark

Norway

Austria

United States

This is the list for the Private Property Attribute.

[Paladin2]

See below. There are a number of attributes beyond private property in the study.

[556x45]

The ‘rule of law’ bunch are so ripe for slavery. Its stability at all costs and it will cost them. They dont understand a thing about the principles on which this country was founded. So many hang out here and call themselves ‘patriots’ and lovers of country.

To the article, we can thank the Stupid 9 for their recent part in the private property war.