Burlington High School
Burlington, Kansas
Teacher: Devra Parker
Freedom
By Brandon Bober
12th Grade
The countries that I have chosen to compare are Denmark from the free category, Haiti from the mostly free category, Saudi Arabia from the mostly unfree category, and Philippines from the repressed category. Each of these countries has several reasons as to why they are in these categories that they are in. Some of the reasons are positive and some are negative, but each has an impact on the category in which the country is placed.
Denmark is economically free. They have large counts of warehouses, factories, and major industries. They are part of the European Union. I believe as long as they maintain a good relationship to the countries they trade with, their economy should stay up. Since they are so dependant on other’s resources they need to be careful unless they want to risk the possibilities of not getting imports from countries.
Haiti is mostly free. They are so economically dependent on the United States, since we are their number one trading partner. They have light manufacturing facilities and rely on coffee as their crop. The massive deforestation has been occurring. The mining at Haiti isn’t a huge factor. They count on more of their company’s products that are made. When they are unable to meet certain economic aid conditions, then the U.S. government comes to help them out until they begin to increase.
Saudi Arabia is mostly unfree. What makes Saudi Arabia so important to the United States is that we basically get all of our oil from them. Saudi Arabia is the number one leader of exporting oil to Japan, Great Britain, and other European countries, South Korea, Singapore, and the United States. Agriculture is a growing economic department because of food self-sufficiency. The annual hajj brings about two million pilgrims to Mecca. A hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca prescribed as a religious duty for Muslims. Saudi Arabia is also encouraging tourists to visit the Red Sea coast.
Economic freedom is strongly related to prosperity and growth. Countries that are economically free tend to grow faster and be more prosperous. Investment is 70 percent greater in economically free nations than in unfree nations.
The Philippines was placed in the repressed category. They are predominantly agriculture based. Rice, corn, and coconuts take up more than three fourths of croplands. Hemp, tobacco, and coffee are also important crops. Dairy farmers have a big role in the economy there as well. Animals are raised in the wide spreading of caribou, pigs, chickens, goats, and ducks. An occupation that most citizens have there is fishing. The islands are known for the greatest amount of commercial timber. Manufacturing is common in the metro areas. The chief trading partners are the United States and Japan.
Economic freedom is almost 50 times more effective than democracy in restraining nations from going to war. When measures of both economic freedom and democracy are included in a statistical study, economic freedom is about 50 times more effective than democracy in diminishing violent conflict. The impact of economic freedom on whether states fight or have a military disputes is highly significant while democracy is not a statistically significant predictor of conflict.
Economic freedom measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property.
Economic freedom is strongly related to prosperity and growth. Countries that are economically free tend to grow faster and be more prosperous. Investment is 70 percent greater in economically free nations than in unfree nations.
Thus, by offering education enables the individual together with his fellow citizens to force the government to be effective and to act in the interest of people. Education is the last, but nevertheless, the most indispensable piece of the puzzle. As it refers to the internal ability of the person to act intelligently in his own interest, we must recognize that without it external factors, helping the progress of freedom would not even exist. Negative freedom, free trade, and enduring peace have emerged as a result of the workings of educated men who had the ability to recognize the benefit that these factors would bring to the individual. The progress of freedom demands action. As in man’s world, the starting point of every act is the human mind. Education will have to be the foundation stone of any successful freedom.
Answers To Questions Prompted By The Required Reading
The Benefits of Free
Trade
Q1- Be the Devil's Advocate and counter Benjamin Franklin's statement that "No
nation was ever ruined by trade."
A- Trade is not something we don’t need to be involved with. Trade spreads too many symptoms across the country. All it seems to do is give us more quality of goods.
Index of Economic
Freedom and Annual Report
(Chapter 3 for links to countries)
Q2- Name five
countries whose ranking surprised you.
1. Egypt
2. Japan
3. Brazil
4. Belarus
5. Kenya
Q3- Write one sentence each to explain why you chose the countries you did in Q2.
They are all countries I’m familiar with and they shocked me on how they were ranked.
Q4- The USA was not ranked first in any of the years exhibited online in the
Annual Report nor in the 2005 Index. List the twelve countries that ranked
higher on the Index and the countries that out ranked the USA in the eight
Annual Reports.
1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Luxemburg
4. Estonia
5. Ireland
6. New Zealand
7. United Kingdom
8. Denmark
9. Iceland
10. Australia
11. Chile
12. Switzerland
Q5- The Index uses 50 variables in 10 categories. The Report shows 21 variables in 5 categories and lists 24 sub-variables in its online charts.
Take the 10 categories of the Index and place all 45 variables found in the Annual Report charts under one of the Index categories. The Trade Policy category is already done as an example. Many variables might well go under more than one category. Do the best you can using each variable only once until all are categorized. We will be able to tell if thought is put into this exercise.
As a classroom project, we investigated the ten categories of the index. However, we could not gather enough information to answer this question.