Before we get to Dear Ruler’s remarks about his affection for redistributing the wealth, I would like to highlight the latest Economic Freedom of the World Index.  It is exactly what it sounds like … a measure of how free an economy is, measuring the size of government, taxes, spending, the legal system and protection of property rights, the monetary system, free trade and regulations.

A measure of how free an economy is a measure of how easy it is for an ambitious entrepreneur to put their dreams and capital to work building a new business enterprise … a business enterprise that will create jobs and expand opportunities for others.  The lower you are on the index of economic freedom, the harder it is to get started as a businessman or entrepreneur .. and the harder it is to create new jobs and be a part of a growing economy.

For years, the United States topped the charts.  We were the beacon of economic freedom for the world.  Starting in 2000, we began to slide.  In just a decade, we have managed to squander all of our gains made since the 1970s.  Not only has the United States fallen out of the top ten, we now rank a pathetic 18^th on the list.  Countries ahead of us include Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Bahrain, Mauritius, Finland and Chile. 

If you spend as much time reading the business pages as you do reading the sports pages you know that businesses are sitting on literally hundreds of millions of dollars right now.  These dollars constitute the wealth that these businesses and businessmen have accumulated through years of hard work.  It wasn’t distributed TO them, by the way, it was earned BY them.  Normally this money would be put to work expanding those businesses .. investing in new business ventures .. creating new business opportunities .. creating job opportunities .. expanding our economy .. building more wealth.  That’s not the way it’s working though.  These businessmen are sitting on that cash .. they’re frozen in place.  They’re frozen by a flood of new regulations from the Obama Administration .. and by fear that this man will be reelected in November.  If the voters are actually stupid enough to make the same mistake twice … to put this man into office for four more years … you can look for much of this wealth to flee this country and go to work in the 17 nations that best us in economic liberty.

Something to think about, don’t you think?

And with a guy like Barack Obama in the White House, we will only manage to slip further.  These latest findings should explain a lot …