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87.4% of population experienced a decline in freedom from 2020 to 2022
- Workaccount2 2y agoPersonal freedoms decreased during a global pandemic. Also water is found to be wet.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Quaengos 2y agoCATO's Human Freedom Index uses inflation as a metric. "87.4% of countries experienced pandemic related inflation" is a far less interesting premise.
- phoe-krk 2y agoIf you consider inflation as a reduction of personal freedom, which is IMO quite a valid take, it becomes more interesting rather than less interesting to me.
- darioush 2y agoInflation over the amounts needed to stimulate the economy (2-4%) is unauthorized taxation. Kinda whack how everyone is just "okay" with working hard, paying taxes, then having the value of their work spent without their authorization. Nice there are alternatives for saving.
- dustyventure 2y agoBy alternatives, I suppose you mean pyramid schemes that have no underlying investment that could beat inflation?
- darioush 2y agoYes like gold, real estate, and also arguably the index fund investment (that everyone buys into via 401k). All these investments are only worth anything if someone buys them from you at a higher value. Yes you can generate revenue from these but looking at increases in P/E ratios and real estate prices / income growth tells the story that the increases are primarily fueled by inflation. For example compare the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic rent for a given apartment and you will see if the "underlying investment" is providing increasing value or if the value is the same or less for an older building but inflation is propping it up.
- darioush 2y agoIn actuality fiat currency makes everything a pyramid scheme and allows the government to spend the wealth of the nation in whichever manner it deems fit, since the value of inflation accrues disproportionately to the asset owner (aka people who were there before you, aka pyramid scheme) vs. the earning productive class.
- rat87 2y agoInflation benifits the borrowers. Fist currency makes thing run smoothly when well managed, alternatives such as the gold standard have proven to be much worse that's why everyone switched
- darioush 2y agoThis is true but the government is the biggest borrower, who then immediately spends the funds by "awarding" contracts, obviously they don't have any corruption or favoritism when they do this, nor do they place trades using their insider knowledge of how the funds will be appropriated, which will definitely never impact the average citizen borrower (who is probably in need of borrowing money to buy a house, which is so expensive because... inflation)
- dpc_01234 2y agoPeople didn't switch because of stability problems with gold standard. That's just propaganda and fiat apologetics. As a matter of fact gold standard seen fastest and most stable growth in the history of human kind. Gold is hard to transport, secure and divide so ledgers were used instead which allowed government to just end goal standards to fund WW1 efforts, which also shows the magnitude of destruction and statist largese this enabled. I recommend Broken Money for history and analysis how it came to be that things are how they are.
- mp05 2y agoSo personal freedom is equivalent to spending power? To what end?
- phoe-krk 2y agoSpending power is a freedom, not freedom or the freedom. It's not equal, it's a part of.
- hnbear 2y agoTitle should be "87.4% of world’s population experienced a decline in freedom from 2020 to 2022" "World's" in there is pretty important.
- AzzyHN 2y agoAh, the American burger institute strikes again.
- romanobro56 2y agoCould you expand on this
- magic_smoke_ee 2y agoLibertarian "think tanks" are most often used as corporate tools to push an unpopular agenda for cynical reasons.
- southernplaces7 2y ago>"think tanks"? Because completely unlike libertarian think tanks, those with progressive or left and other agendas are not at all used as tools of any kind of corporate or political interest to push cynical agendas? Why not look at the argument instead of cheaply, simplistically attacking the source based on your emotional, possibly ideological dislike?
- xedrac 2y agoFreedom of Speech seems to have very minimal consideration in this index, despite it being what I would consider the most foundational freedom of all.
- eesmith 2y agoIt should be co-equal to the freedom of association, not foundational, as that would deprive us of liberty. As Mills pointed out in "On Liberty" at https://gutenberg.org/files/34901/34901-h/34901-h.htm https://gutenberg.org/files/34901/34901-h/34901-h.htm : > We have a right, also, in various ways, to act upon our unfavourable opinion of any one, not to the oppression of his individuality, but in the exercise of ours. We are not bound, for example, to seek his society; we have a right to avoid it (though not to parade the avoidance), for we have a right to choose the society most acceptable to us. We have a right, and it may be our duty, to caution others against him, if we think his example or conversation likely to have a pernicious effect on those with whom he associates. We may give others a preference over him in optional good offices, except those which tend to his improvement.
- dude187 2y agoNot to mention the one most eroded by governments and private corporations in the name of "COVID"