Economic Freedom and Prosperity

Dean Stansel, an economics professor at Florida Gulf Coast University will give a speech on behalf of the Mackinac Center titled “Economic Freedom: What It Is and Why It Matters” at noon on Sept. 16 in Troy. The event is free and open to the public — more information can be found here.

He writes about the topic in the Oakland Press.

Americans’ satisfaction with their freedom to choose what they do in their lives has been on a steady decline in recent years, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Perhaps we feel less free because we are less free: economic freedom across the U.S. has been eroding since 2000, when we ranked second in the Economic Freedom of the World index. We now rank 17th. And, this decline has a huge negative impact on economic prosperity among all income levels — contributing to those feelings of lack of control that the surveys found among Americans.

The financial burden of supporting our government has skyrocketed, saddling taxpayers with the bill. While federal government spending has doubled since 2000 and tripled since 1990, the growth of personal income has lagged, rising by less than half since 2000. Making matters worse, 10 million Americans are unemployed and another 8 million are involuntarily working part-time.