According to a study by George Mason University’s Marcatus Center, which was founded by Koch brothers acolyte Rich Fink, New York ranks at the very bottom of the list of states with the best economic and personal freedoms. The list is topped by red states like South Dakota, Indiana, Idaho, and Missouri. (New Hampshire, fittingly, hit the No. 1 spot. “Live Free or Die!”) We earned our ranking in part because of our high taxes, health-insurance regulation, and nanny-state restrictions on trans fats and cigarettes. But also, for some reason, we join Massachusetts, Hawaii, California, and New Jersey in the bottom five because of our high level of spending on social services, as well as transit and electricity. Calling New York “the most liberal state in the country” (it’s not), the study’s organizers recommend that we can be more free by cutting spending and taxes, reducing requirements on home-schooled students, and by legalizing unions between same-sex couples. Come on, guys; next time we’ve got to be at least freer than New Jersey.
Freedom in the 50 States [Mercatus via NYP]
