A la Uruguaya

[airiefairie]

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/towards-a-worldwide-index-of-human-freedom.pdf

The latest Personal Freedom Index ranking shows some interesting surprises. For instance, one could conclude that it is unfortunate that only three and a half million people live in a country like Uruguay

Comments

[airiefairie]

That may well be the case. Meanwhile, other indicators that are not a result of this research, firmly put Uruguay in the top 3 (and in many respects on the top position) in the entire South American continent:

Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequality-adjusted_HDI -- 1st
Corruption Perception Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index -- 1st
Literacy rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate -- 1st
Press Freedom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwide_Press_Freedom_Index -- 1st
Economic Freedom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom -- 2nd
Employment rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate -- 2nd
Global Peace Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Peace_Index -- 2nd
Infant mortality rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate_(2005) -- 2nd
Life expectancy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy -- 2nd
Legatum Prosperity Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legatum_Prosperity_Index -- 2nd
GDP (PPP) per capita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita -- 3rd
Human Development Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index -- 3rd
Quality of Life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_index -- 4th

Etc

Of course I am aware that numbers are hardly able to tell us the full story about the actual conditions in these countries compared to each other, and like I said, people voting with their feet might be a much more reliable indicator than any researches and any indexes. And still, there they are.

[sealwhiskers]

I am not doubting the results, or what you say, I was just struck by the sheer and flamboyant ideological bias in the method presesented in the equality research, and how they define "freedom". They are very open with it too, they list what political ideologists count and how. The study is entirely based on the perspective of a few historical/political names.

This is not criticism of your post, and I do not need a list of other research. But I did sit down and read that whole thing, and found it highly note worthy.

[airiefairie]

Sorry for the link spam...

[sealwhiskers]

No worries, I don't mind them, but as I didn't disagree with anything in your article, it wasn't striclty needed. I do trust the methods in most of these other studies a little more however, on account of the detail I brouight up. I do think that political bias messes with studies in the long run. Not necessarily with the immediate results, but with the correlation between different results, if that makes sense.