This is  continuation of my post yesterday,  “Where  Is This “Free Market”?

I have heard the term, economic freedom used for many elections and this one is No different….Mitt has started using it as his latest bumper sticker to impress voters.  But what is this “Economic Freedom” he speaks of in Illinois?  Did the slogan help him win in the prairie state?

I have studied economics in the past and I do not have a handy definition I can offer up….and let me interject here that academics are paid big bucks for the knowledge and their brilliance to obfuscate……so like any good techie I went to the internet, especially answers.com….

Economic freedom is a term used in economic and policy debates.  As with freedom generally, there are various definitions, but no universally accepted concept of economic freedom. One major approach to economic freedom comes from classical liberal and libertarian traditions emphasizing free markets and private property, while another extends the welfare economics study of individual choice, with greater economic freedom coming from a “larger” (in some technical sense) set of possible choices. Another more philosophical perspective emphasizes its context in distributive justice and basic freedoms of all individuals. Other conceptions of economic freedom include freedom from want and the freedom to engage in collective bargaining.

The free market viewpoint understands economic liberty as the freedom to produce, trade and consume any goods and services acquired without the use of force, fraud or theft.   This is embodied in the rule of law, property rights and freedom of contract, and characterized by external and internal openness of the markets, the protection of property rights and freedom of economic initiative. There are several indices of economic freedom that attempt to measure free market economic freedom.   Empirical studies based on these rankings have found higher living standards, economic growth, income equality, less corruption and less political violence to be correlated with free market.

Mitt’s ranting about the subject….what does he really mean?  Well first of all, it is election time and No one but him knows what he means……because it is election time he is lying….why?  His lips are moving.  But since Mitt is so strong for economic freedom what does he mean of all the different definitions?

You decide!  I think he is just campaigning and has no idea what he means when his speech writers throw the concept into his latest stump.