Ecuador - A balanced view after returning home

Of particular concern as a United States citizen is what is loosely described as economics. The conservative think tank Heritage has published its Index of Economic Freedom for a number of years, and it is an excellent and thought provoking ranking.

On its website, Heritage.org, they describe the slant of the index in these terms. “Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state. In economically free societies, governments allow labor, capital and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.”

Now for those of you who may consider this as a pure Ayn Rand Objectivist approach you are probably right. While I too would love to live in utopia, I realize that that this is not realistic. This index does however strive with this filter to rank nations on a 100 point scale comprised of 100 point scales indexed above. The Index of Economic Freedom is found at www.heritage.org/.../economic-freedom/index-of-economic-fr..        

In this ranking the United States is ranked 10th with an overall score of 76, grouped in a category of “Mostly Free”. If you think this is good, think again, as the United States is below Canada and Chile! Much of Latin and South America are in the “Moderately Free” group. This includes:

#36 Uruguay      69.7

#37 Columbia     69.6
#44 Peru              68.2
#49 Costa Rica   67
#50 Mexico         67
#53 El Salvador  66.7
#71 Panama       62.5
#80 Paraguay     61.1
#85 Guatemala 60.0

Lowly Ecuador ranks not in the “Mostly Unfree” but in the ranks of “Repressed”. At #159 with a score of 46.9 it is below Bolivia (#156 47.9) yet above Argentina (#160 46.7), Venezuela (#174 36.1). Please note that Zimbabwe (#175 28.6), Cuba (#176 28.5) and of course North Korea (#177 1.5) are the absolute bottom.   

For those who are able to look at the glass half full rather than half empty, the World Average score is 59.6 and the Regional Average is 59.4. This puts Ecuador in context with its 46.9 score. It is interesting to note that when compared to the United States Government Spending at 47.8 compares favorably to Ecuador’s 47.3, United States Fiscal Freedom at 69.3 is overshadowed by Ecuador’s at 80.1 and while below the United States in Monetary and Trade Freedom it is close.

Just listening to our President today with his populist message to avoid sequester I can imagine a day when these scores even out. In the near future, those interested in Ecuador as an alternative to the United States also need to measure the rhetoric of President Obama with the newly elected President of Ecuador Rafael Correa. In these measurements, I count it as a tie. I return to a conversation several months ago with Anna Maria Garcia, a resident of Lima Peru and founding family descendant. I commented” I understand that your President is a communist” to which she responded “He’s not a communist, he is a populist which is worse.”

Our decision may boil down to watching a train wreck at home, the country I love, or in Ecuador, a country that ranks above the United States in Fiscal Freedom. Watching my own purse may be desirable in a country with nice people, good infrastructure and a cost of living while as an expat remaining somewhat detached from the negatives. After all, if I wanted to remain in the United States, disagreeing in total with the direction of our Country, continuing to sacrifice myself as all of the other disinterested individuals. Perhaps I admire the many rational individuals in Ecuador realizing as Ayn Rand that “there are no conflicts of interest among rational men.” I must consider as a rational man the reality, context, responsibility and effort seriously lacking amongst my countrymen, but strangely present in Ecuador.