Absolute Economic Liberty, Relative Economic Liberty, and the Never-Answered Question

As part of my recent presentation to IES Europe, here’s what I said (and what I’ve said many times before) about the relationship between economic policy and national prosperity.

My remarks focused in part on the difference between absolute economic liberty and relative economic liberty.

• The absolute level of economic liberty is the degree to which a nation relies on markets or statism (see, for instance, the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World).
• The relative level of economic liberty is a measure of whether one country is more market-oriented than another country (basically a measure of national competitiveness).

Understanding these two concepts explains why it is possible to criticize nations in North America and Western Europe for having too much government while also recognizing that those same nations tend to have better policies than most countries in other parts of the world.

An obvious example is Denmark. It certainly has some foolish and misguided government policies, but it is very pro-market when compared to the 90 percent of nations that have even lower levels of economic liberty (a distinction that Bernie Sanders has never grasped).

The obvious takeaway is that economic liberty matters, regardless of whether we’re looking at absolute levels or relative levels.

During my remarks, the audience got to see a two-question challenge, which asks our friends on the left to give an example of their dirigiste policies generating good economic outcomes.

But I’ve never been happy with the clunky wording of that challenge (just as I wasn’t happy with the original wording of fiscal policy’s Golden Rule).

So here’s a new version, which I’m now calling “The Never-Answered Question.”

I frequently unveil this question during debates.

And it’s quite common that my opponent will claim Sweden.

But as I noted in the above video clip, Sweden became a rich nation when government was very small. It didn’t have an income tax until 1902, and the welfare state was tiny until the 1960s. And I then explain that Sweden’s economic performance has been inversely correlated with the size and scope of government.

Unsurprisingly, the same is true for every other prosperous country in Europe and North America.

The bottom line is that my leftist friends will never successfully answer this question.

P.S. When considering the second part of The Never Answered Question, I don’t want a cherry-picked one- or two-year period. I want several decades of data, so we can be sure of a real trend. Much as I’ve done when making comparisons.

• West Germany vs. East Germany
• Czechoslovakia after World War II
• Poland after the collapse of communism
• Chile vs. Argentina vs. Venezuela
• Hong Kong vs. Cuba
• North Korea vs. South Korea
• Cuba vs. Chile
• Hong Kong vs. Argentina
• Singapore vs. Jamaica
• United States vs. Hong Kong and Singapore
• Botswana vs. other African nations