Posted on 05/09/2009 10:42:37 AM PDT by Josh Painter
According to a study released by the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, Alaska is the clear winner among the 50 states in terms of personal freedom:
Sarah Palin’s Alaska does extremely well on personal freedom, conclude study authors. Reasons for its high personal freedom alone score include: fully legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana (accomplished through a court ruling), the best (least restrictive) gun laws in the country, recognition of same-sex domestic partnerships, and possibly the best homeschooling laws in the country.Among the findings, presented in a paper by Jason Sorens and William P. Ruger, is that in general, some of the most liberal U.S. states rank lowest when it comes to personal freedom.
The study, which bills itself the "first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres," may help explain why Gov. Palin is so popular among libertarians.
A PDF of the paper is available for download here.
h/t: The Jawa Report
- JP
Sarah Palin’s Alaska does extremely well on personal freedom, - fully legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana (accomplished through a court ruling) - recognition of same-sex domestic partnerships,
Perhaps if the libtards knew this they'd like Sarah a bit more?
We find that the freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending and middling levels of regulation and paternalism. New York is the least free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland. On personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner, while Maryland brings up the rear. As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom. Regression analysis demonstrates that states enjoying more economic and personal freedom tend to attract substantially higher rates of internal net migration.
Interesting!
Regards,
If I thought we could handle the winters, I’d start bugging dh to move there, but I know we couldn’t. Not a chance. He grew up in Guam, I grew up in Arid-zona.
It’s not too surprisingly that Ohio rates so poorly in this study. After all, we had years of total RINO domination in this state (Governors Voinovich and Taft, a majority Republican state House and Senate). This state is pathetic. I wouldn’t encourage any recent college graduate or college student to stick around after graduation. It’s only going to get worse.
“Regression analysis demonstrates that states enjoying more economic and personal freedom tend to attract substantially higher rates of internal net migration.”
Now that is promising. So not only do conservatives have the higher birth rate going for us, but the population of more libertarian states is growing from immigration (retirees like low taxes and cost of living!).
The problem is, the people immigrating aren’t necessarily conservative, and the liberal states are also probably replacing their population loss with external immigration, both legal and illegal. While the conservative states population should outstrip the liberal states in the long-run, and gain congressional seats, those 2 factors will complicate things.
Further, in speculating about corresponding long-term demographic shifts, I think that one would also have to study just how stable these findings are.
I.e., will Alaska still be as free in twenty years' time? Could, e.g., California experience some conservative backlash? Etc.
Regards,
Overall freedom ranking places Colorado 2ND. Things haven't changed much. NY still sucks.
Shall we all take wagers on when Zero begins to auction Alaska off to the Russians?
All the more reason we see the commies attacking her, her family, and state.
I left NY #50/48 to live in CA #48/37.
Right direction (numerically) - wrong destination (wasted move).
I believe he will do everything to destroy Alaska’s independence. No drilling - no missile defense - no gas line....He needs to stop Sarah before 2011
...but the weather’s better, no?
These kind of ratings are very subjective. Californians enjoy a lot of freedoms you can’t buy at any price elsewhere (e.g. freedom to enjoy beautiful beaches, mountains, rivers, and weather).
I and my bones agree with you but.......
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