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

[mahnmut]

[htpcl]

I notice SA is greener than BG.This really says it all.

[mahnmut]

I'm not sure how accurate that greenness is.

[rimpala]

Mali is still in the green and they kind of have a war going on right now...

[abomvubuso]

A country the size of 1/3 of London (or Paris) has won the number of World Cup titles of England AND France combined.

Nuff said.

[airiefairie]

The USSR has won so many Olympic gold medals - so what. =)

[abomvubuso]

STOP USING LOGIC AGAINST ME!!1

[airiefairie]

I'm trying!

[mahnmut]

Please read rule #10 of this community.

Just to preserve the contents of your comment, I'll cite it verbatim without the image.

sophia_sadek: The US must have recently lost a few freedom points since the nudists have been banned from the streets of San Francisco.

[sophia_sadek]

That image should be perfectly safe for work. It shows no genitalia, no nipples, no butt cracks.

[yes_justice]

Since we can't do it here, where can we do it?

[sealwhiskers]

Interesting article, but their measurement on "Freedom" is highly ideological, and they openly admit that in the text. So, I'll have to say that this "study" is scientifically not worth much, unless you want to study how a certain ideology measures freedom. It hardly tells anything at all about the actual conditions in these countries compared to each other.

[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

[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...

[underlankers]

And then I looked the text again and realized that actually it was ultra neo-liberal policies being defined as freedom when the phrase 'Stone Age Communism' showed up.

[airiefairie]

Fair enough. I would be interested to know which set of criteria you would be comfortable using for measuring a country's success or lack thereof.

[underlankers]

If freedom means success, I would rate freedom based on the ability of its press to criticize its leadership and on the freedom of expression in the country, as well as the basics like the freedoms of assembly and association (which does not mean the right to ban disliked racial minority groups ala Ron Paul). In terms of economic success, I would rate it based on a basis that can endure for a long time and withstand the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. By that standard there's almost nobody in the world who's successful, the USA included. Short-term progress is worthless unless it has a long-term basis to endure.

[airiefairie]

In terms of political freedoms and such fundamental tenets of democracy like the freedom to criticise one's government and the freedom of assembly, I think it has already been demonstrated here that Uruguay is ahead of all its neighbours (see second link).

As for no one being successful in terms of long-term economic success, even if that were the case, it may level the field for other types of success to be definitive of the overall success of a country - so I suppose we return to Uruguay's political success as a factor of distinction between this country and its counterparts. In any case, that makes it more successful than the majority of its neighbours.