Don's Tuesday Column 8-16

         THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   8/16/2016

              Let freedom reign, it’s slipping away

In August of 2015, one year ago, a new installment of a report on the freedom of countries around the world came out. In “United States Drops In Overall Freedom Ranking,” Casey Harper (The Daily Caller) notes the decline in freedom, economically and overall. We tend to take freedom for granted; gradual changes are hardly noticed, for better or (usually) worse.

Imagine the phrase, “Make America Free Again,” on the shirts and caps of a presidential candidate. The same political crowd that derides Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan would probably object to the idea that America isn’t as free as it once was; the same ones that think this economic recovery is the best we can hope for in a time of lowered expectations.

Does freedom play a major role in what constitutes greatness? Does the chipping away of basic freedoms have a cumulative effect on the national, community, even personal, psyche? Is America like the storied frog placed in a pot of water, which is slowly heated and tolerated by said frog until it simultaneously becomes both intolerable and deadly? How do you measure the businesses not starting up, or once started, failing to achieve profitability? Well, that can be and has been measured; it has declined—not improved—and it does play a role in freedom.

Harper cited a report created by the Cato Institute, Fraser Institute and the Swiss Liberales Institut together. “A new report on the freedom of counties around the world ranks the United States 20^th…The U.S. was ranked 17^th in 2008, but a steady decline of economic freedom and ‘rule of law’ has dropped the level of freedom. Co-author Ian Vasquez told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the steady growth of government and increased regulations of business and labor contribute to the U.S. lowered rating.

“Since the year 2000, the U.S. has been on a decline in terms of economic freedom,” Vasquez told the DCNF. “The other main reason for the United States’ low rank comes from the ‘rule of law’ measures, (while) increased invasions of privacy through the war on drugs and war on terror have contributed to the decline in freedom. Also, the increased use of eminent domain is factored in as a violation of property rights.

“The other indicators used to make the list were security and safety, movement, religion, association, assembly and civil society, expression, relationships, size of government, legal system and property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, regulation of credit, labor and business…The U.S. performance is worrisome and shows that the United States can no longer claim to be the leading bastion of liberty in the world,” Vasquez wrote.

If you wish to see the full list, enter the title of the article from the first paragraph in an Internet search box. You’ll find that countries freer than America range from large ones like Canada (no. 6), Germany (no. 12) and the United Kingdom (no. 9), to lesser countries like Chile (no. 18), Ireland (no. 8), Finland (no.3), with Hong Kong coming in at number 1.

The “war on drugs” is a mixed blessing, or curse, if you will. I condemn drug use as a social ill, even evil (count me out of the well-intended but foolishly advocated Libertarian legalization push). There have admittedly been excesses and unintended collateral damage to innocent people, as well as gross abuses of property rights through seizures without due process.

Absent capital punishment for drug sellers, who directly cause a scourge of death and violent crime, I would support long sentences for dealers. That policy debate will have to wait. I think the observable proof is plain for all to see that leniency for drug dealers—perversely known as “prison reform,” “realignment,” and the Orwellian initiative, “Safe neighborhoods and schools act,”—has horrible results. July 2^nd Daily News headline: “Number of violent crimes jumps.”

The “war on drugs” doesn’t reduce freedom as much as the spread of violence and crime from drugs, users, sellers and such ilk. Crime and drugs kill local economies and reduce freedom measurably.

Similarly, the “war on terror” may have curtailed freedom in a marginal way; however, actual instances of extra-legal abuses have been rare. Given the need for all levels of law enforcement to be right 100 percent of the time, they will still be minutes away when seconds count; afterwards, they’ll analyze the who, what, where, why and how of terrorist attacks.

Can they apply that analysis to proactively identify terrorists before they go operational? Now you risk crossing the thin line created by civil libertarians and the ACLU-types. They favor the politically correct, non-judgmental approach to, let’s be blunt, profiling people. Does it warrant the use of “pre-crime” techniques like those in the film, “Minority Report”?

Still, those two wars—on drugs and terror—have a more negative impact on the freedom of law-abiding citizens by their failure than by their success. Islamic terrorism, unlike the lone-nut out to kill co-workers or ex-lovers, is intended to “terrorize” the wider public and induce anxiety and fear of doing economically productive things. The jihadists have taken note of the $1-trillion+ hit to America’s economy from the minimal cost (to them) of 9/11.

Compare that to the almost $2-trillion annual cost of regulations; the decidedly excessive level of (often frivolous) litigation, directed at businesses of all sizes; and some of the highest taxes in the world on businesses—those all negatively impact economic freedom and freedom overall. Next week: the impact of Medicaid spending, immigration and reduced entrepreneurism.