What’s So Great About Economic Freedom? – Learn Liberty
Economic freedom involves more than just the freedom to buy and sell products and services. It allows us to be free in our interactions with other people. Economic freedom enables us to travel, to say what we want to say, to do what we want to do. Prof. Antony Davies shows how economic freedom is associated in the data with a number of positive indicators of a healthy country. For example, countries with more economic freedom tend to have higher GDP per capita, to take better care of the environment, and to be more equal across genders. In addition, countries with more economic freedom have less child labor. Economic freedom is important in healthy societies. It is about being free to make your own choices.
Economic Freedom and Better Life
Economics professor Josh Hall explains that economic freedom leads to greater human well-being. If we look at average income, life expectancy, income of the poorest 10%, and other factors, we see that when governments let citizens make economic decisions for themselves, this leads to greater human flourishing.
Economic Freedom by the Numbers
What’s the evidence that economic freedom is beneficial for society? Prof. Antony Davies shows charts of the free market’s effects on unemployment, inequality, poverty, and even child labor.
Free Markets
Free markets allow individuals to exchange freely for mutual benefit. Government interventions such as subsidies, bailouts, licensing, and other selective corporate privileges distort the flow of information and incentives that lead us to find opportunities to create mutual benefit for us and others. Regulations often benefit some at the expense of others, they create incentives for unprincipled cronies to seek benefits at the expense of others.
