Economic Freedom Falling in Bolivarian Andes

This is an interesting piece from The Heritage Foundation using the recent announcement of the foundation's annual economic freedom rankings to contrast the performance of three nations of the Bolivarian bloc in South America with three contiguous countries pursuing much more pro-freedom policies.

To the embarassment of great economic thinkers of a progressive bent, freedom wins! Of course, freedom can be valued for its philosophical and theological merits. But, it also does a better job of delivering more goods to more people than the leviathan state so fondly embraced by communists, socialists, progressives or leaders of our own Democratic Party.

This study was, of course, done before the recent tragedy of the 8.8 earthquake near Concepcion, Chile. It will be instructive in following the recovery efforts to contrast the experiences of Chile and Haiti. Among other things, I expect it will demonstrate the superiority of a highly developed, free market economy in responding to human needs in the wake of natural disaster - something to also keep in mind in the global climate change debate.