Under Barack Obama, The U.S. Becomes Less Free

Seriously, someone measures this stuff:

More details here.

Here's the natural consequence:

By any standard, over the last year Americans’ overall wealth and prosperity has continued to decline. Americans, in fact, are more likely than ever to believe that their children and grandchildren will be worse off than the current generation. They believe future generations will live in a less prosperous and less economically mobile America. The traditional American faith in upward economic mobility – widely understood to be the American Dream – seems more elusive now than ever.

One recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that 55% of Americans believe their children will be worse off when they grow up, while only 36% see a better future for them. Similarly, a December 2009 Gallup study found that Americans are more pessimistic about our future now than at any time since the late 1970s.

Sadly, this bleak view of the future is understandable – after all, unemployment has skyrocketed and shows no signs of abating, government spending and debt are at unprecedented levels during peacetime, and our elected officials seem determined not only to ignore these alarm bells but to pursue policies – expensive new entitlement programs; debilitating new taxes on wealth creation, savings, and investments; and new government regulations that have created a climate of such uncertainty – that will cause entrepreneurs to stay on the sidelines rather than take the risks that have led the United States out of previous recessions. Studies indicate that this is indeed the case. “The largest force driving unemployment [in the U.S.],” Heritage’s James Sherk argues, “is the sharp drop in private-sector job creation” rather than job losses incurred through lay-offs.

In a nutshell, there is a growing sense that, in economic terms, America is less free and is destined to remain that way.

How's that hope-n-change working out? Not too well, really. And I guess that's why only 23% of America would, if an election were held today, vote for Barack Obama again.

Hmmm...

There's my two cents.