A new study shows shows that citizens of France now feel that they enjoy more personal freedom than Americans.
Under Obama, U.S. personal freedom ranking slips below France.
Americans' assessments of their personal freedom have significantly declined under President Obama, according to a new study from the Legatum Institute in London, and the United States now ranks below 20 other countries on this measure.
The research shows that citizens of countries including France, Uruguay, and Costa Rica now feel that they enjoy more personal freedom than Americans.
As the Washington Examiner reported this morning, representatives of the Legatum Institute are in the U.S. this week to promote the sixth edition of their Prosperity Index. The index aims to measure aspects of prosperity that typical gross domestic product measurements don’t include, such as entrepreneurship and opportunity, education, and social capital.
The freedom scores are based on polling data from 2013 indicating citizens’ satisfaction with their nation's handling of civil liberties, freedom of choice, tolerance of ethnic minorities, and tolerance of immigrants. Polling data were provided by Gallup World Poll Service. The index is notable for the way it measures how free people feel, unlike other freedom indices that measure freedom by comparing government policies.
“This is not a good report for Obama,” Legatum Institute spokeswoman Cristina Odone told the Washington Examiner.
In the 2010 report (which relied on data gathered in 2009), the U.S. was ranked ninth in personal freedom, but that ranking has since fallen to 21st, with several countries, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom passing the U.S.
The nation’s overall personal freedom score has declined by 17 percent since 2009, with a 22 percent drop in combined civil liberty and free choice contributing to that decline.
The nation’s overall personal freedom score has declined by 17 percent since 2009, with a 22 percent drop in combined civil liberty and free choice contributing to that decline.
Of the eight categories in the index, personal freedom was America's second lowest performance relative to other countries. The U.S. had its lowest ranking when it came to safety and security (a broad measure of how threatened citizens feel in instances such as walking late at night, or expressing their opinions) — ranking 31st out of 142 countries.
The cross-country comparisons in the index should be taken with a grain of salt. The perception of what freedom means in New Zealand, which has the highest personal freedom ranking, may vary from how Americans measure their own personal freedom. But regardless of how the U.S. compares to other countries, there is no denying that Americans felt less free in 2013 after four more years of Obama’s presidency. And so now he faces the embarrassment of being the president that made Americans feel less free than the French.
You seem to be ignorant of the source of the housing crash and its cause. Start with the Community Reinvestment Act from Jimmy Carter then follow it through the rest of the administrations, they all added to it. Basically the government told banks they have to lend to people that can't afford to take the loan but granted them anyway because the government guaranteed the loans. Then when it went belly up, the government crucified the bankers (in the media, but not so much in court) because they did what they were told to do and it backfired.
As for ending two wars, can you tell me which ones? From where I stand, it just looks like we re-named what we were doing to make it look like we ended two wars. Last time I checked, we still have soldiers fighting in the middle east where these wars were supposed to have ended. It's kind of like saying the Vietnam war wasn't really a war, it's just a police action. I don't buy it.
As for the post of whether Obama or Trump is better, I'll reserve judgement for a while longer but I voted for Gary Johnson so don't count on me to be a Trumpeter. So far it seems like a lot of wind and not much sail.
I don't blame the bush administration. However, I think there could have been more done to stop the crash. For one they should have triggered emergency and temporary legislation to stop people from intentionally foreclosing on their houses and buying a new house before the foreclosure hit their credit report.
Iraq
December 2008: 160,000+ Deployed
Current: 3,800 Deployed
Afghanistan
December 2008: 38,000+ Deployed
Current: 5,500 Deployed
I'm not saying he personally ended the wars, but they were raging strong when he took office. Now they aren't. What's the disagreement?
When Obama took office:
Dow: 7,949
NASDAQ: 1,520
When Trump took office:
Dow: 19,732
NASDAQ: 5,540
Today:
Dow: 20,954
NASDAQ: 6,116
Has it gone up since Trump took office? Yep. But come on. Over Obama's 8 years the Dow went up 148% and NASDAQ went up 264%. Don't try to diminish that. It is huge growth.
The real blame goes back much further (then continues on with bad policies being retained), actually to a point before I was a dirty thought in my dad's head when we put Saddam in power followed by hiring Bin Laden to build training camps to push the Russians out of Afghanistan. I knew the first time I heard that we couldn't find the "terrorist training camps" we were being fed a line of BS because we paid to build them when they were known as training camps for afghani patriots being oppressed by the mean old ruskies.
Well, we'll have 4 years of turned fruit for you to change your mind. Supposing you have one.
That's a good one!