January 08, 2004
ANGLOSPHERICS:
2003 Index of Economic Freedom (Heritage Foundation, 2004)
1 Hong Kong
2 Singapore
3 Luxembourg
New Zealand
5 Ireland
6 Denmark
Estonia
United States
9 Australia
United Kingdom
The single most important predictor of the top 10 is easily apparent--being, or having been colonized by, Britain. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 8, 2004 02:44 PM
Estonia?
Posted by: AWW at January 8, 2004 02:46 PMAWW,
Estonia has gotten some pretty rave reviews for being pro-capitalism and having reasonable (at least when compared with neighboring countries) tax rates.
Ed
Posted by: Ed Driscoll at January 8, 2004 03:12 PMLuxemburg BETTER be rated high on this list given that its entire r'aison d'etre is to serve as tax dodge (flows one way) haven for citizens of more regulated European countries.
Posted by: MG at January 8, 2004 03:46 PMHm. Did Denmark ever have any colonies, or did the British pretty much pull all those out from under them?
Posted by: Mike Earl at January 8, 2004 04:23 PMThe Brits are Danish get.
Posted by: oj at January 8, 2004 04:27 PMDenmark had Greenland (still kind of has, I think) and one of the Virgin Islands. What an amazing contrast, ain't it.
Posted by: MG at January 8, 2004 05:32 PMSpeaking of Estonia, I just saw this on Dean Esmay's site.
Ed
Posted by: Ed Driscoll at January 8, 2004 07:42 PMYa' know, Ed, I bet you thought you'd pretty likely go all of 2004 without saying: "Speaking of Estonia..."
Posted by: oj at January 8, 2004 07:46 PMFunny you don't see India, Pakistan, Canada, Egypt and the Carribean islands there if British colonialism was the most important factor.
The post-colonial economic policies of the countries' leaders was more important.
Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at January 9, 2004 05:47 AM