America Just Got Bumped From This Top 10 List, and That’s Really Depressing

World economic freedom has increased to record levels, according to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, released Tuesday by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. But the United States, after seven consecutive years of slipping down the index, has dropped out of the top 10 freest economies.

For 20 years, the Index of Economic Freedom has evaluated countries’ performances in 10 categories, including property rights, freedom from corruption, government spending, trade freedom and others. Scores from 0 to 100 are then averaged and the countries are classified as “free,” “mostly free,” “moderately free,” “mostly unfree” or “repressed.”

The “mostly free” United States sank to 12th place with an economic freedom score of 75.5, half a point lower than last year, when it ranked 10th.

The reason, according to editors of the report: “The overall economic policy direction of the United States in recent years has involved substantial growth in the size and scope of government, accelerating the erosion of economic freedom and contributing directly to America’s fall from the top 10 freest economies.”

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