Clearly, the U.S. is probably in irrevocable decline. What, if any, countries out there are becoming more free politically and economically? I read somewhere that Sweden was originally free market, and this, among other things, is the reason for its wealth and high standard of living. Unfortunately, their prosperity declined because of high taxes and the social welfare state, but they are gradually reversing course to becoming more free market oriented.
http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/Sweden%20Paper-%20revised.pdf
Where are the bright spots in the world?
Hong Kong, perhaps? Economically, they are extremely free. However in about 40 years they will become fully integrated in the Chinese socialist system, so...
SkepticalMetal: Hong Kong, perhaps? Economically, they are extremely free. However in about 40 years they will become fully integrated in the Chinese socialist system, so...
Yeah, I wouldn't include Hong Kong or Sinapore either. If we exclude the federal government, I think many of the states (Texas, Dakotas, Florida, etc.) would fair well on this type of list.
South-East Asia, Thailand and Malaysia in particular.
Costa Rica.
What about the countries of the BRIC. In one generation the Chinese has increased the freedom from benign neglect more than any other nation in history. In under two generations this country went from the Great Leap Forward to being a somewhat free nation. Brazil and Russia and India through the 70s, 80s and 90s were economic basket cases with runaway inflation. Now they are all major exporters. Granted these countries have a long way to go interms of freedom but all have come a long way in less than two generations.
Just from my cursory search, Malaysia looks pretty interesting. I also think the BRIC countries are on the rise, too, though they differ in rates.
Honduras
“Since people are concerned that ‘X’ will not be provided, ‘X’ will naturally be provided by those who are concerned by its absence.""The sweetest of minds can harbor the harshest of men.”
http://voluntaryistreader.wordpress.org
Russia. Jim Rogers recently became a consultant for a Russian agriculture firm. Also, they realize the value of monetary independence.
The Anarch is to the Anarchist what the Monarch is to the Monarchist. -Ernst Jünger
With respect to modernization and industrialization, I think Malaysia and Russia are probably the best places mentioned so far.
Malaysia, Honduras, and Russia? I'm not one to use the "Why don't you move there" argument but....
Seriously, Costa Rica. They are on the rise, big-time.
Russia? i find this hard to believe, i havent ever heard anything good coming out of there. Any sources you care to provide to defend that statement? Or expand on your statements?
SkepticalMetal: Seriously, Costa Rica. They are on the rise, big-time.
I read on one website that it's not safe to drink the tap water there.
malaysia has recently turned over a LOT of government run businesses to private so i would agree.
Honduras has the private/free city. I figure any government that gives up control over an area of land for a privatized city with a vote of 126-1(i think) will be on the rise.
@shackleford
I don't know anything about that.
Rogers, as the FT and other outlets have noted, was famous as a Russia “bear.” But simply calling him a “bear” doesn’t really do justice to the strength of his former views. As the FT astutely noted, Rogers was so ostentatiously negative in his views on Russia that a back-and-forth e-mail exchange he had with Dmitri Alimov, a Russian MBA student at Harvard Business School, made it all the way to the New Yorker. ... As should be seen from the e-mail exchange (which people ought to read in full) Rogers was not simply a “bear” he was the Царь медведей the capo de tutti capi of people who thought that Russia was a doomed and collapsing nightmare of a place. That he has now not only agreed to invest in the country but to work on behalf of a state-owned Russian bank is dramatic in a way that’s hard to overstate. A rough equivalent, I think, would be if Richard Dawkins got religion, quit Oxford, joined a monastery on Mount Athos, and penned an updated version of Mere Christianity.
Well, I see now that some people say the tap water is fine in Costa Rica.
One of these days I am going to move to central america, I am going to take $5000 with me and arrive there on holiday and never leave and see what i can do. Panama has no central bank, definitely a must visit.