Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
New Jersey is a highly regulated state all around, near the bottom in both personal and economic freedom, and it deteriorated further in 20072008. Taxes are high, and spending is about average. Spending on education is particularly high. Property taxes are among the highest in the country, and individual income taxes are also high. Gun control is extensive and worsening.
Policy Recommendations
1.Reform asset forfeiture by placing the burden of proof on the government and redirecting revenues from law enforcement.
2.Cut state funding to local school districts and use the savings to cut income, property, and cigarette taxes.
3.Repeal occupational licenses, such as those for contractors, claims adjusters, urban planners, rehabilitation counselors, librarians, and court reporters.
Who decides what "freedom" is?
Suprise me Indiana is ranked third! But it appears the main freedom here is economic not social freedom.
Although we hope we have demonstrated that some states provide freer environments than others, it would be inappropriate to infer that the freest states necessarily enjoy a libertarian streak, while others suffer from a statist mentality. Other research has shown that in the United States, state politics, like federal politics, plays out largely on a single leftright ideological dimension defined by sociocultural attitudes toward equality, authority, and tradition.26 On the other hand, preliminary unpublished research of ours does suggest that states with larger libertarian blocs tend to have more personal (but not economic) freedom, but the effect is small.
