Economic Freedom Index

Australia ranks 10th in the 2005 World Economic Freedom list of 155 countries compiled by the US conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation. We have added the full list to Lists in Resources. (We have also added a link to the current list of Kyoto Ratifiers in Links.) Top of the list are the "anything goes and heavily polluted" mainland China controlled island of trading place Hong Kong (1), the "highly regulated hair length" and Lee family kingdom of Singapore (2) and the land locked grand duchy of Luxembourg(3).

This raises questions of what is "freedom". Does it have anything to do with democracy? (Not for the top 3!). Does it mean if you are on an island with everything you "need" your freedom is not relative to other parts of the world. Or does freedom only exist when you have a boogieman to take up arms against? (e.g. does the USA need Russia and North Korea around, or do blacks need slavery to get emotional about freedom?)

We couldn't find a song or poem that seemed to be all embracing about freedom so we have added snippets of several in an addition to Songs & Poems in Resources. Contact Us if you have others to add.

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