There's a loose correlation between freedom and economic/cultural attainment. It works on large scales and explains the difference between, say, the United Stat

There's a loose correlation between freedom and economic/cultural attainment. It works on large scales and explains the difference between, say, the United States and North Korea. On smaller scales though, such as comparing different states within the US, other things tend to dominate -- in particular the presence of big cities, which are positively correlated with economic and cultural attainment and negatively correlated with freedom. Honestly, if this graph were the best case we have for the proposition that freedom is nice then it'd be a pretty weak case.