SHIPS THAT CROSS IN THE NIGHT:

Socialism and Prosperity? (Gabriella Megyesi, Jul 12, 2004, Digital Freedom Network)

I have been in Canada for just two weeks and already I feel at home. I feel at home not because of the landscape or climate. Nor do I have any family here. But public policy in Canada reminds me of growing up under a communist regime in Hungary during the 1970s.

I recently looked at The Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom Index, which measures the economic freedom of 122 countries (based on the ingredients of personal choice, protection of private property, and freedom of exchange). It revealed that Hungary has been doing quite well since its transition from a command economy to a market-driven economy. Its rating, after stagnating for a long time in the 1980s at 4.8 out of 10, suddenly jumped up to 7.4 in the 1990s due to massive deregulation, privatization, and a free market economic structure that made it possible to have wage incentives. I have seen these changes at work in Hungary's economy and witnessed the beneficial results.

Sadly, Brian Mulroney did more to liberate Eastern Europe than Canada.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 16, 2004 6:36 PM