Video: Economic freedom in America today

Every year, regulatory compliance costs U.S. businesses $1.75 trillion, according to a new video released by the Charles Koch Institute. With that money, businesses could hire 43 million workers or a quarter of the U.S. workforce. When again will the Senate vote on the regulatory reform component of the president’s jobs proposal? Oh, right. The plan doesn’t include such a component.

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As the president continues to tout his second stimulus, let this video make the case as to why more government spending and excessive government regulation do nothing to grow the economy or create jobs:

Just to reiterate: The U.S.’ gains in economic freedom made over 20 years have been completely erased in just nine. For the first time ever, the United States ranks below Canada.

The majority of Americans understand that businesses and consumers are over-regulated — and they also understand that regulations have especially increased over the past few years. During its first 26 months, the Obama administration imposed 75 new major regulations with reported costs to the private sector exceeding $40 billion. During the same period, six major rulemaking proceedings reduced regulatory burdens by an estimated $1.5 billion — for a net increase of more than $38 billion.

If this were all just a theoretical or ideological matter, that’d be one thing. But less economic freedom translates to a lower quality of life. As the first video in this series explained, in countries with the most free economies, people earn, on average, more than eight times what people earn in countries with the least free economies — and the poor in the freest economies earn 10 times more than the poor in the most restrictive economies. People in the most economically free countries are happier, have better protected civil rights and cleaner environments. They live, on average, about 20 times longer. The freest countries also have less corruption, less infant mortality, less child labor and less unemployment. What’s to lose by rolling back unnecessary regulation — other than a power trip for regulators who frequently take advantage of the revolving door between regulatory agencies and industry?

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If the president wants to prove he’s serious about job creation, he’d better get serious about regulatory reform and debt and deficit reduction.

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