Article From Reason by John Stossel and Maxim Lott.

Are you living in the freest country? Not if you live in the United States.

The new “Human Freedom Index” by the Fraser and Cato Institutes ranks countries by both economic freedom–like freedom to trade, amount of regulations, and tax levels–and personal freedom–such as women’s rights and religious freedom.

America rose seven spots in the latest report, to number 17. But it’s still far from where it once was.

Report co-author Ian Vasquez tells John Stossel that America “used to be a two, three, or four. And then government started to grow. It started to spend more.” President Bush signed the Wall Street bailouts and increased regulations. Obama continued increasing regulations and upped America’s top tax rate.

Read the entire article at Reason.

Image Credit: Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons