Expensive freedom
The idiom “freedom is not free” greets visitors at the memorial of the 2004 bombings in Erbil, Iraq, in a region whose mineral wealth heavily influences politics. The Cato Institute assessment of the relative freedom of countries suggests that freedom is either a cause or effect of wealth, with all of the top 10 countries in its ranking being wealthy European or Commonwealth nations. The countries ranked most free are also relatively small countries by population, and the study states that only 14% of the world’s population lives in the top quartile of jurisdictions, while almost half live in the bottom quartile. Human freedom has been deteriorating, with government actions in the early 2020s impacting freedom of movement, expression, and association and assembly. The federal constitution of what the Cato Institute considers the freest nation on Earth, Switzerland, nonetheless reminds its citizens that “only those who use their freedom remain free.”
Source: Cato Institute