in fact, it's marching away from the u.s. according to the heritage foundation's "freedom index", the u.s. has dropped out of the top ten. the current top ten in terms of economic freedom are:
1. hong kong*
2. singapore
3. luxembourg
4. estonia
5. ireland
6. new zealand
7. the UK
8. denmark
9. iceland
10. australia
echidne has already pointed out how the whole ranking system is pretty dubious to begin with, based on numerous assumptions of what constitutes "freedom" that many people would not buy. but putting that aside, i can't help but wonder:
if al qaeda attacked us because "they hate our freedom" do they hate us less now?
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*not an independent country, if you want to be technical about it. i wonder what the heritage foundation will do when they finally get the 8 year old memo explaining that the place they rated most free in the world is, in fact, part of a godless communist country.
UPDATE: per charles' comment in which he noted that the heritage foundation was only rating "economic freedom" i clarified the language above. i don't think it changes my basic point though
