Importantly, the report shows that countries with greater freedom enjoy a significantly higher average per capita income of $50,340 compared with the least free countries’ average per capita income of $7,720. Evidently, as economic, and civil freedoms interact with one another, these freedoms play an important role in our well-being.
An influential late 18th century thinker on the fleeting quality of freedom was Alexander Fraser Tytler, a
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.
Conscious of the frailty of liberty, Thomas Jefferson echoed Tytler: "Yes, we did produce a near- perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction.”
Today, in our uncritical enjoyment of plenty we should ask: Are we enjoying our liberties for the last time?
