American prosperity has slipped under Obama, according to a new report from London’s Legatum Institute.
Unlike other indices that rank countries’ prosperity based primarily on economic measures such as GDP, the Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index assigns scores based on polling data about respondents’ satisfaction levels with their governments’ handling of several measures related to prosperity, including personal freedom.
Compared to last year’s rankings, the United States slipped five places to 21st place. That puts us just a few ranks above Hong Kong and Trinidad and Tobago but below countries such as Costa Rica, Malta, and France—yes, France. As The Washington Examiner’s Jason Russell reports:
Americans' assessments of their personal freedom have significantly declined under President Obama. …
The research shows that citizens of countries including France, Uruguay, and Costa Rica now feel that they enjoy more personal freedom than Americans. …
The index is notable for the way it measures how free people feel, unlike other freedom indices that measure freedom by comparing government policies.
“This is not a good report for Obama,” Legatum Institute spokeswoman Cristina Odone told the Washington Examiner.
In the 2010 report (which relied on data gathered in 2009), the U.S. was ranked ninth in personal freedom, but that ranking has since fallen to 21st…
Overall, the United States’ personal freedom score has dropped 17 percent since 2009, driven in large part by a corresponding 22 percent decline in combined civil liberty and free choice scores.
The fact that American respondents are feeling less and less free should be a huge red flag for our newly elected and re-elected representatives. Rather than going along with the Obama Administration’s signature plans, including Obamacare and Common Core standards, national and state lawmakers should make protecting personal freedom, not more expansive government, their top priority.