View source for The Libertarian Map of Freedom

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[[Category:Corey Robin]]
[[Category:Mercatus Center]]
[[Category:Libertarian Indexes Of Freedom]]
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{{DES | des = [[Corey Robin]] points out a few of the howlers in the Mercatus Center's “Freedom in the 50 States.”  "Libertarian freedom: no abortion, everyone in jail, and the lights are on all the time. Free at last, free at last." | show=}}
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The libertarian Mercatus Center, which is located at George Mason University, has issued its third edition of “Freedom in the 50 States.” It’s a color-coded map of how much freedom there is, state by state, in the US.  Its freedom index is based on what Mercatur says is a “combination of personal and economic freedoms.”

So here’s what you learn:

North Dakota is the freest state in the union! (It’s also a state that has effectively banned all abortions.)
Texas is the 14th freest state in the union! (It has also the fourth highest incarceration rate.)
California is the 49th and New York is the 50th freest state in the union! In other words, the least free states. Which is why we’re color-coded black on the map. Like North Korea at night.
Libertarian freedom: no abortion, everyone in jail, and the lights are on all the time. Free at last, free at last.

Update (9:30 pm)

Someone in the comments thread pointed out to me that one of the measures on the freedom index—that is, how free a state is—is “Bachelor Party.” What the hell is that, you ask? According to our friends at Mercatus: “This user-created category combines a variety of laws including those on alcohol, marijuana, prostitution, and fireworks.” Right. So no measure for abortion because, as the print edition of the report makes clear (see pp. 5-6), it is a controversial issue about which reasonable people disagree. But prostitution? Part, apparently, of what Rawls would call our “overlapping consensus.”
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