Prog Blogs, Orgs & Alumni
Bank Slate
Betsy Devine
birch, finch, beech
Democracy for NH
Live Free or Die
Mike Caulfield
Miscellany Blue
Granite State Progress
Seacoast for Change
Still No Going Back
Susan the Bruce
Tomorrow's Progressives
Politicos & Punditry
The Burt Cohen Show
John Gregg
Krauss
Landrigan
Lawson
Pindell
Primary Monitor
Primary Wire
Scala
Schoenberg
Spiliotes
Welch
Campaigns, Et Alia.
Paul Hodes
Carol Shea-Porter
Ann McLane Kuster
John Lynch
Jennifer Daler
ActBlue Hampshire
NHDP
DCCC
DSCC
DNC
National
Balloon Juice
billmon
Congress Matters
DailyKos
Digby
Hold Fast
Eschaton
FiveThirtyEight
MyDD
The Next Hurrah
Open Left
Senate Guru
Swing State Project
Talking Points Memo
50 State Blog Network
Alabama
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Reading various recent posts from some of our libertarian friends (deliberately using small "l" here to give all of them the benefit of the doubt) led me to start wondering if there were any examples of successful political systems in the world that embodied these principles. A little research revealed that while there were none that are totally libertarian in all senses, there were some exemplars pointed to by those of the libertarian persuasion, one list can be found here. To save you some time, the top 10 of these were as follows:
1. Estonia
2. Ireland
3. Canada
4. Switzerland
5. Iceland
6. Bahamas
7. UK
8. US
9. Cyprus
10. New Zealand
The arch-conservative Heritage Foundation has a similar list based solely on "economic freedom", their top ten are:
1. Hong Kong (wait a minute, isn't this now part of the PRC???)
2. Singapore
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. Ireland
6. Switzerland
7. Canada
8. US
9. Denmark
10. Chile
Looking at those countries in either list above the US, it's interesting (but no surprise) to note that ALL OF THEM have robust public health care options (I checked). It should be noted that Switzerland's model is a little different than some, but nonetheless guarantees health care for all citizens. These countries recognize that while individual freedoms may be paramount, free markets alone do not provide viable health care, and thus government has some responsibility in regulating health care and managing costs.
By the way, all of the top seven have some form of government managed pension or social security as well.
