I had the same question and it would be good if you’d answer it.
Serendipper used it as a measure of “capitalism”.
Actually capitalism here has the meaning of “anti-socialism”, which is a good definition of capitalism in the context of government spending. Essentially, socialist governments are those that spend more money, presumably for the good of society (social) and “anti-socialism” is governments that do not.
Ireland is #5 at the top of the list. Syria is #3 on the bottom.
Makes sense. Problem?
Saudi Arabia is #10 at the top of the list. Egypt is #10 on the bottom.
What does that mean?
Both Saudi Arabia and Ireland are socialist utopias? The House of Saud runs Saudi Arabia. That’s enough to make any socialist cringe.
Why is Saudi Arabia referred to as a “Welfare State”?
Saudi Arabia simply pulls money from the ground and throws it around, hence the government spending and its rank on the list. The ranking doesn’t take into account social justice.
On the other hand, Egypt is capitalist:
Since 2000, the pace of structural reforms, including fiscal, monetary policies, taxation, privatization and new business legislations, helped Egypt move towards a more market-oriented economy and prompted increased foreign investment. The reforms and policies have strengthened macroeconomic annual growth results which averaged 8% annually between 2004 and 2009 but the government largely failed to equitably share the wealth and the benefits of growth have failed to trickle down to improve economic conditions for the broader population, especially with the growing problem of unemployment and underemployment. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Egypt
Trickle-down doesn’t work.
Ireland has some problems, but welfare is robust:
As of December 2007, Ireland’s net unemployment benefits for long-term unemployed people across four family types (single people, lone parents, single-income couples with and without children) was the third highest of the OECD countries (jointly with Iceland) after Denmark and Switzerland.[208] Jobseeker’s Allowance or Jobseeker’s Benefit for a single person in Ireland is €188 per week, as of March 2011.[209] State provided old age pensions are also relatively generous in Ireland. The maximum weekly rate for the State Pension (Contributory) is €230.30 for a single pensioner aged between 66 and 80 (€436.60 for a pensioner couple in the same age range).[210] The maximum weekly rate for the State Pension (Non-Contributory) is €219 for a single pensioner aged between 66 and 80 (€363.70 for a pensioner couple in the same age range). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_o … nd_welfare
Syria is a pinnacle of capitalism? So is Egypt?
No, Venezuela is the pinnacle, but Syria and Egypt are vying.
Then it changes to a measure of “freedom”?
The freedom index was more of a sidebar. My main argument was delivered by Chomsky. IOW, in addition to the argument, there is also the freedom index.
It doesn’t make sense in that case either. It doesn’t match the list of “most free countries”.
What doesn’t match it?
I just showed that in terms of “freedom” #42 France has almost the same % gdp as #1 Finland.
That’s two data points. I provided 13.
The top countries are less than 60%, except Portugal.
The bottom countries are greater than 60%, except France and Slovakia.
(60% has the significance of being the median of the range and 62% is the mean. So countries less than 60% are socialistic and countries greater than 60% are anti-socialistic/capitalistic.)
- Finland 53.7%
- Norway 43.4%
- Sweden 44.2%
- Canada 57.4%
- Netherlands 44.3%
- Australia 57.2%
- Luxembourg 30%
8 ) New Zealand 54.4% - Uruguay NA
- Denmark 47.5%
- Portugal 65.2% ← outlier
- San Marino NA
- Andorra NA
- Barbados NA
- Ireland 50.6%
- Japan 55.4%
- Switzerland 53.6%
- Belgium 50.7%
- Iceland 50.6%
- Austria 51%
- Chile 61%
- Cyprus 73.1%
- Estonia 52.6%
- Germany 51.6%
- Spain 60.6%
- Tuvalu NA
- UK 64.1%
- Czech Republic 48.8%
- Dominica NA
- Kiribati NA
- Micronesia NA
- Slovenia 49.8%
- Taiwan 54.2
- Malta 45.9%
- Marshall Islands NA
- Palau NA
- Bahamas NA
- Costa Rica NA
- Lithuania 64.1%
- St. Lucia NA
- Cape Verde NA
- France 53.8% ← outlier
- Liechtenstein NA
- St Vincent NA
- Italy 62.2%
- Mauritas 74.1%
- Slovakia 53.8% <–outlier
- St Kitts NA
- Grenada NA
- Latvia 60.6%
- Belize NA
- Croatia 61.7%
- US 68%
But as I said, this was merely an interesting sidebar and not my argument. I cannot propose a mechanism to explain the correlation of freedom with government spending. It’s just interesting that freedom is ranked higher in socialists places and lower in business friendly places.
Even if you could distort this to satisfy your bias, it wouldn’t mean anything.
What’s meaningful is that government spending = nice places to live. And lack of it = crappy places to live.
And people flee places where government spending is less and flock to places where it is more.
You created a false dichotomy between capitalism and socialism.
No I didn’t. And neither did Chomsky.
Then you attempted to use one number to characterize the capitalism/socialism of countries.
Which number would you like me to use? I can slaughter capitalism in any way you’d prefer. It’s a dumb system advocated by dummies. See here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=194612
Why do you want to ally yourself with dummies?
I say bullshit.
I say that proves Peter’s point.
That number does not represent the level of “capitalism” of a country.
It represents the lack of government spending, which is an attribute of socialism.