David Matthews said:
It's true. I would prefer to live in a free country.
Right now, I don't think I can afford to. I think for most places I need to invest $400,000 in a company or something like that to be considered for citizenship. I certainly will be researching it and trying to find out how I can become a citizen somewhere that's free.
Most Americans still think of the USA as the freest country on Earth. Sadly, though, by any objective measure, this country has lost that distinction. Indeed, by many measures it has become one of the most OPRESSIVE! Need convincing?? Well, since freedom means literally - "lack of restriction or opression", one unbiased way to measure freedom would be to count the laws, regulations, edicts, etc. of each country. Wanna take a wild guess which country has the most? I'll give you a clue - it's initials are U.S.A. It's not even close. And it's getting worse every day. The US puts out more laws, regulations, etc. in one year than most other countries put out in decades.
Still not convinced? How 'bout we measure freedom using another criterion. How about comparing each country's imprisonment rate? Surely Russia, South Africa, or one of those zealot Arab countries leads the world in imprisoning the largest percentage of citizens. Right?? Sorry. It's the good ole USA, once again. Land of the free (??), home of the brave.
What about economic freedom? America HAS TO be the freest country to start a business, doesn't it? Sorry once again. Several independent groups (from both ends of the political spectrum) have rated various countries for their economic freedom and NONE have rated the US higher than 4th. Among the freer are New Zealand, Chile, Luxemburg, Bahrain, Hong Kong and even Singapore, believe it or not.
The real tragedy, though, is that it hasn't mattered over the years which party has been in power!! The rate of imprisonment and the rate of implementation of new laws has increased in every recent Republican AND Democratic Administration. Bush or Kerry - if you TRULY value freedom, it won't make one bit of difference.