A new study ranks the 50 states (hat tip to LohMan) on individual freedom and its components: fiscal policy, regulatory policy and "paternalism." The authors use a reasonable definition of what freedom is:
50. New York
49. New Jersey
48. Rhode Island
47. California
46. Maryland
Combined population = 71,213,040 (about 23.6 percent of the total* U.S. population of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.)
The states at the top are:
1. New Hampshire (Read my license plate!)
2. Colorado
3. South Dakota
4. Idaho
5. Texas
Combined population = 32,337,339 (about 10.7 percent of the nation's total)
My current place of residence, The Show-Me State, came in at No. 6.
I recently listened to Francis Parkman's serialized adventures, The Oregon Trail. I assumed he would be following the Oregon Trail and writing about experiences that emigrants had on their way to start a new/different life elsewhere. There were a couple of encounters with emigrants but the title is misleading. Parkman and his cousin, Quincy Shaw, set out from St. Louis in 1846, headed for Fort Laramie. Once that destination was reached, they made sojourns into Sioux villages to experience the lifestyle of the Oglalla. (They eat a lot of meat.) The descriptions of buffalo hunts were vivid. I kept trying to visualize what it must have been like to butcher a bull on the spot and then hang the meat behind your horse. How much can a horse bear?
Early in the journey Parkman, Shaw and their party met up with a train of emigrants who were California dreaming. At that point the families realized they were taking too much stuff with them. They disposed of excess baggage by discarding non-essentials, selling items at a loss or, in the case of the barrels of Missouri whiskey, drinking it on the spot. Freedom on the trail!
Ree Drummond is a pioneer woman in Oklahoma (No. 18 on the freedom scale). You won't believe what she does with her free time.
*using the 2007 figure of 301,621,157 as found here.
The ability to dispose of one's own life, liberty and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual's ability to do the same.Your state may be the land of the brave but how about the free? The states at the bottom of the rankings are:
50. New York
49. New Jersey
48. Rhode Island
47. California
46. Maryland
Combined population = 71,213,040 (about 23.6 percent of the total* U.S. population of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.)
The states at the top are:
1. New Hampshire (Read my license plate!)
2. Colorado
3. South Dakota
4. Idaho
5. Texas
Combined population = 32,337,339 (about 10.7 percent of the nation's total)
My current place of residence, The Show-Me State, came in at No. 6.
I recently listened to Francis Parkman's serialized adventures, The Oregon Trail. I assumed he would be following the Oregon Trail and writing about experiences that emigrants had on their way to start a new/different life elsewhere. There were a couple of encounters with emigrants but the title is misleading. Parkman and his cousin, Quincy Shaw, set out from St. Louis in 1846, headed for Fort Laramie. Once that destination was reached, they made sojourns into Sioux villages to experience the lifestyle of the Oglalla. (They eat a lot of meat.) The descriptions of buffalo hunts were vivid. I kept trying to visualize what it must have been like to butcher a bull on the spot and then hang the meat behind your horse. How much can a horse bear?
Early in the journey Parkman, Shaw and their party met up with a train of emigrants who were California dreaming. At that point the families realized they were taking too much stuff with them. They disposed of excess baggage by discarding non-essentials, selling items at a loss or, in the case of the barrels of Missouri whiskey, drinking it on the spot. Freedom on the trail!
Ree Drummond is a pioneer woman in Oklahoma (No. 18 on the freedom scale). You won't believe what she does with her free time.
*using the 2007 figure of 301,621,157 as found here.