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Bitcoin and Economic Freedom
• https://www.ccn.comThere have been many studies on economic freedom around the world. Economic freedom clearly correlates with a high GDP per capita. Countries that have banned or over-regulated bitcoin are low on the economic freedom ranking and also have a low GDP per capita. These unfree regimes play a part in creating poverty for their people.
According to the 2017 Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom, the following 5 countries were the most economically free:
Hong Kong
Singapore
New Zealand
Switzerland
Australia
Heritage uses the following 4 categories to assess economic freedom:
Rule of Law (property rights, government integrity, judicial effectiveness)
Government Size (government spending, tax burden, fiscal health)
Regulatory Efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom)
Open Markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom)
Using the World Banks 2016 numbers, let's look at GDP per capita for the 5 most economically free societies:
Hong Kong $43,681
Singapore $52,961
New Zealand $39,427
Switzerland $78,813
Australia. $49,929
Cleary, having economic freedom correlates with people being well off. The more economically free a country is, the better off the people are. Economic growth and increases in GDP per capita lead to longer lives, more choice, less pollution, smaller families and new technological breakthroughs. Countries becoming richer can effectively save the planet.
Banning Bitcoin
According to Wikipedia, the following 5 countries have banned Bitcoin:
Morocco
Bolivia
Ecuador
Kyrgyzstan
Bangladesh