931 The Freedom Champions

<p>The world strives to be egalitarian; only the U.S. is a bastion of liberty, which promotes meritocracy, creating inequality, the opposite of egalitarian. Therefore, whenever some world ranking emerges that purports to measure something with an egalitarian bent, the U.S. tends to do poorly; even something as fundamental to America as freedom. In the eyes of the German think tanks that prepare the World Freedom Index, freedom is measured by how much you can bully other people’s liberty; for example, if you’re offended by what another person is doing, can you force them to stop? And if another person has been more success than you, can you force them to share? Because in the eyes of the oral illusionists who measure “freedom,” equality makes you free.</p> <p>Their components of freedom are: economic, political and press, as measured on an egalitarian scale, which add together for a Total Freedom Score. In that light, it’s not difficult to guess which nations are the freedom champions: There’s Sweden, followed by Norway, Finland, Denmark and The Netherlands. Canada, where you could go to jail for misgendering someone, is in the top 10. Apparently, egalitarian freedom includes ineffectual depression and long summer vacations, because all of those nations specialize in that too. These are nations that would be expected to insure freedom around the world with their militaries, economies & global diplomacy… Or not. Where is the U.S. on the World Freedom Index you might wonder? #27, just below Cyprus but above Slovakia. Perhaps America's Freedom ranking is pulled down because we have to register for the draft; but if we had a Universal Basic Income, we could probably break into the top 20.</p>