It’s no coincidence that the free thrive
My colleague, Carolina Journal editor in chief Donna King, had a great column yesterday on how more and more people are coming to North Carolina because of our tax environment, one new person every 7 seconds, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. But I want to broaden that out a bit more and just point to the observable law that people are drawn to freedom (both of commerce and conscience) because it predictably creates human flourishing.
The IRS data that the NTUF report pulled from is by itself evidence of that correlation. Just see if you can notice a pattern. Here are the five states that gained the most new residents between 2013 and 2022: Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
And here are the five states that lost the most residents: California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.
The same states largely still populate the top and bottom of the chart now. Maybe you could suggest that, despite recent headlines of rising global temperatures, people decided to move south to get away from the cold. But this theory is contradicted by sunny California losing the most people. No, the only workable theory for a correlation I can see is that the states people are choosing to go to allow a person to thrive — to find a job, to build a business, to afford a home, to say what they want to say, to live how they want to live (without harming others).
The states are “conservative” in one sense, by insisting on classical liberalism and its individual liberties. But you don’t have to BE a conservative. Texas has places like Austin, Florida has its Key Wests, and North Carolina has its Ashevilles (and Carrboros and Durhams) where a progressive would feel more than at home.
The wider evidence
If Americans voting with their feet doesn’t convince you, a look at the wider world may do the trick. The Economic Freedom Index is a very useful tool for seeing what happens when nations try to tightly control their economies and what happens whenthey allow a fairly relaxed system where people can start businesses without worrying about overly burdensome taxes and regulations. Every year, virtually without fail, you can line up those most-free nations and the nations with the highest GDP per capita and notice… they’re (with rare exceptions) the same countries!
Right now, the top 10 are Singapore, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, Taiwan, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Estonia, and the Netherlands. (The US is actually further down, at No. 22, mostly because our government spending category is terrible. Many countries provide more social programs for less, while we are notoriously inefficient and spend more for less.)
Would you be surprised to see North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela as the three least free countries economically? Is it a coincidence that the bottom 10 countries on the list are also the last 10 places on the planet most people would want to live?
Okay, now look at the world’s GDP per capita rankings. Notice, the nations where individuals have the most money on average are those same earlier ones where they are allowed to pursue their economic interest with the least obstruction (and some city-states). Like with the US pattern regarding taxes and where people choose to live… I don’t think this is a coincidence.
The United States actually does much better than most of these countries on tax burden and property rights, and we have a major focus on entrepreneurship, which explains why we are able to be top 10 in per capita GDP despite our overall lower economic freedom score.
In fact, we have put such a large emphasis on reducing costs and regulative burdens for businesses that we’ve created a business environment completely unmatched in the world. Marcus Magarian of Chatsworth Securities, using data from MIT’s Andrew McAfee, compared the market cap for major companies founded in the last 50 years from the US vs those from the European Union, and we blew them away — with 68 companies (including giants like Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft) with a combined market cap of $30 trillion in the US vs only 13 companies with just a total market cap of $400 billion for the EU.
Funny enough, the British became aware this week, that if they were an American state, they would have the 51st GDP per capita, after Mississippi. And they were not happy, with one Brit asking how the average “Mississippi swamp dweller” is better off than them.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves responded to this slight against his state with a very Southern, “Bless your heart.”
As we say in Mississippi,
— Governor Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) April 16, 2026
“Bless Your Heart.”
Or as you say in the UK,
“As-Salamu Alaykum.” https://t.co/oCajoT8LQ7
And which nation do you think attracts the most immigrants per year — despite giant oceanson either side and a president that regularly discourages mass-immigration? That’s right. The world is also voting with its feet, and the US has been the top international destination for migrants for over 50 years, according to the UN Migrant Report.
And for the last non-coincidence, see the top 15 countries for overall freedom in the Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index, which also includes freedom of speech and religion and other key liberal principles. Notice something? Yes, it’s the same club. Nations that defend liberty in one area tend to do so across the board.
If the US could fix the inefficiency of its social programs, it would top the list. But we’re still saved by our entrepreneurship and and overall devotion to classical liberalism. And within our nation, North Carolina is near the top. Does that make us the greatest place to be on earth? Pretty much.
“It’s no coincidence that the free thrive” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.
