The Cato Institute released its assessment of freedom in each of the fifty states last week, and it generally does a good job of distinguishing between states that heavily restrict people’s lives and ones that allow more freedom. But the Antiplanner has been concerned that the many different indices of freedom published by various groups don’t seriously consider property rights, which most libertarians believe are the fundamental basis of freedom.
This year’s report attributes about 11 percent of the score for each state to property rights. Most of that 11 percent comes from two factors: rent control (5.3 percent) and zoning (4.8 percent). Rent control is easy to identify but it is not a very good indicator of freedom because most states don’t allow it or allow it only under special circumstances. Only four states allow it outright, and not surprisingly given the weighting these make up four of the five lowest-scoring states on property rights.
Zoning is much more difficult. The fifty-states report relies on the Wharton Business School’s index of zoning, but that is more than a decade old and fails to accurately assess just how flexible zoning is in some states and inflexible in others. Even more than Wharton’s index, the report relies on an index of court decisions on land-use issues, which seems more reliable as a guide to how litigious people are than to how restrictive their land-use rules are.
When judged based on property rights alone, the fifty-states report appears to be mostly right, but I have some quibbles. The ten freest states are Alabama (#1), South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kansas, Arkansas, Indiana, and Texas (#10). No problem there, though I would have ranked Indiana & Texas higher and South Carolina and Tennessee a lot lower.
Vital Information Rendered by Kamagra Online Stores A genuine and reliable drug store. bulk tadalafil Stallion xl discount levitra no rx amplifies the strength of tongkat ali Extract the herbal medicine that has been used again and again to mean “sexual desire. If your sexual problems are making you uncomfortable you should not use if you: * are cheap viagra taking any nitrate medication, such as nitroglycerin for angina, as it may lead to a severe drop in blood pressure. Example Swedish massage focus on the body in different, small parts. cialis price http://respitecaresa.org/author/ncarney/ The ten states judged to give least protection for property rights are New Jersey (#50), Maryland, Vermont, California, New York, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, New Hampshire, and Washington (#41). Of these, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire should not have been in the bottom ten. Hawaii has the nation’s worst property rights record followed closely by California, yet Vermont is rated worse than both. This is mainly because of the number of court cases in Vermont, but the reality is that Californian and Hawaiian property owners are so beaten down by regulation that they don’t often go to court. Massachusetts should replace Vermont in the top ten, Delaware should replace New Hampshire, and I would judge Rhode Island worse than Maine.
Nevada is rated #25, but there should be an asterisk beside that. Nevada probably does a better job of protecting private property rights than any state but Texas. The problem is that there is so little private property in Nevada, as 89 percent is owned by the federal government and at least a percent is owned by the state. This makes it an almost feudal society.
The final score, including all measures, ranks Florida, New Hampshire, Indiana, Colorado, and Nevada as the freest states while New York, Hawaii, California, New Jersey, and Vermont are least-free. Some of those sound right, but not Florida as the freest nor Vermont as fifth-least free.
The real purpose of reports like this, of course, is not to get the exact ranking right but to encourage legislators and policymakers to think about the impacts of their laws and regulations on personal freedom. While I might weight things a little differently, those are just quibbles. It is pretty clear that freedom has not been a prime consideration for much legislation in the past 60 years or so, and we can hope that this report helps turn that around.
Does the Cato institute have state rankings on more important metrics, besides the subjective buzz word “personal freedom”, such as life expectancy, access to afford quality healthcare, high school graduation rates , infant mortality, maternal mortality, childhood poverty.
ah yes the modern version of the “but we were good to the slaves argument”. No matter that we take away your freedom and you literally spend half your life working to feed the state, at least our childhood poverty rates are lower than others thanks to our state subsidized planned murder… I mean, planned parenthood program, eh? ***ROLLL EYES**
@antiplanner, whatever shortcomings it has, the map and indexes show there are still important culture differences in the US. It is important to note those differences.
One situation is the bat-shit conspiracy theory monkey poo some Progressives have been flinging over not getting their pet tax increases in places like Nashville. The Nashville-Davidson county referendum failed – and it didn’t just fail it got slaughtered – because the culture doesn’t lean that way in the first place. Instead of accepting, hell, instead of _EMBRACING_ those cultural differences, the East Coast elites throw a fit and reject science. They flat out reject Occum’s Razor.
The problem is that there is so little private property in Nevada, as 89 percent is owned by the federal government and at least a percent is owned by the state. This makes it an almost feudal society.
Great description. And of course that makes Nevada’s citizens almost serfs.