The United States is now ranked 16th in terms of economic freedom, trailing countries like Taiwan, Jordan and Switzerland.
Ranked second as recently as 2000, the U.S. has since trended downward consistently, leaving the authors of the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World annual report to conclude that "nowhere has the reversal of the rising [global] trend in economic freedom been more evident than the United States."
Economic freedom is defined as a state where "individuals are permitted to choose for themselves and engage in voluntary transactions as long as they do not harm the person or property of others."
Since 2000, the "decline in economic freedom in the United States has been more than three times greater than the average decline found in the OECD," the report says.
Hong Kong and Singapore continue to occupy the top two positions, followed by New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Jordan, Ireland, Canada and the United Kingdom. The five least economically free countries are Syria, Chad, Libya, the Republic of Congo and Venezuela.
"Economic freedom breeds prosperity and economically free countries like Canada offer the highest quality of life while the lowest-ranked countries are usually burdened by oppressive regimes that limit the freedom and opportunity of their citizens," said Fred McMahon, Dr. Michael A. Walker Research Chair in Economic Freedom with the Fraser Institute, according to the Washington Examiner.
Researchers note a number of reasons likely causing the U.S.'s decline, including an increased use of eminent domain laws to transfer private property to powerful political interests, backlash from the continued wars on terrorism and drugs, an uptick in civil asset forfeitures, restrictions on foreign investments, expanded business regulations and regulatory favoritism, the Affordable Care Act, Dodd-Frank, and a decline in judicial independence and court impartiality. There is also the expanded use of secret FISA courts, the TSA's nationalization of airport security, unchecked Federal Reserve monetary expansion and huge growth in government spending, including military, entitlements and bailouts, which has cause debt to soar.
"To a large degree, the United States has experienced a significant move away from the rule of law and toward a highly regulated, politicized, and heavily policed state," the report says.
Unless these policies can be reversed, "the future annual growth of the U.S. economy will be only about half its historic average of 3 percent."
People living in countries with high levels of economic freedom live longer lives, are more prosperous, and have greater political and civil liberties, according to Market Watch.
