Are things perfect here? No – not by a long shot…but then again, compared to some other places…not too shabby at all!

Freedom in the 50 States: Index of Personal and Economic Freedom

This paper presents the first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. We develop and justify our ratings and aggregation procedure on explicitly normative criteria, defining individual freedom as 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 other individuals’ ability to do the same.

This study improves on prior attempts to score economic freedom for American states in three primary ways: 1) it includes measures of social and personal freedoms such as peaceable citizens’ rights to educate their own children, own and carry firearms, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure; 2) it includes far more variables, even on economic policies alone, than prior studies, and there are no missing data on any variable; 3) we adopt new, more accurate measurements of key variables, particularly state fiscal policies.

We find that the freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending and middling levels of regulation and paternalism. New York is the least free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California and Maryland. (Emphases added)

The Chief knew there were a number of reasons why he liked living in South Dakota. Many of them relate to the topics covered in this analysis. Check it out.

If you’re a South Dakota liberal, let not your heart be troubled…Minnesota is right next door and Eastbound I-90 will take you there easily.  Don’t let the door hit you in the — on the way out!