The erosion of economic freedom in many places has been as real and as destructive as the erosion of political freedom. Countries that once seemed to be marching towards free-market capitalism, including two of the West’s former foes, Russia and China, have now readopted dirigiste economic models. Across much of the developed world, the liberalization of economies at the end of the 20th century has stalled, and the state is capturing an ever-larger share of economic output.
Yet it is important to remember the victories that free market economics has achieved and is continuing to achieve. While some measures of freedom have gone into reverse, by many others we are living in one of the most economically open times in human history. The success of the free-market economic model over its alternatives is clearer now than it has ever been. Similarly, the success of free-market policies in many spheres of life, in privatized industries, in price deregulation, and others, shows little sign of abating, and these and other market reforms have continued to spread.
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If one was surveying the world from the 1940s to the 1970s, one could be forgiven for believing that socialism and communism were ascendant, that top-down planning would be the essential part of all economies, and that private entrepreneurs were nearing extinction. Now, in the early 2020s, it would be foolish to believe these things. Despite real, and in many places growing, threats, the future of economic freedom looks brighter than its past.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Fusion
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Judge Glock is the director of research and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal.
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