from Andrew Mathews: " Which brings up the question of, in this time of information overload, " does there exist anywhere, in chart form, something that demonstrates " what individual and collective freedoms, stated or absent of any " defining law specifically prohibiting, that were in existence 200 years
[8><------8><-----] It seems to me that, before one can measure, or derive a graph/chart of, something, one must define it. (and, of course, there's no point in trying to manage anything that isn't measured. This is one of the benefits that so many, especially politicians, get from so frequently and so improperly using the words 'freedom' and 'democracy' as though they were synonyms.) In my opinion, -none- of the definitions of 'freedom' in current circulation are even close to adequate. There are -so- many such definitions, too. One would think that something thought (or at least so piously proclaimed) by so many to be so important could be defined precisely and unambigouously on at least a theoretical basis. Some libertarians (with whom I have some sympathy but nowhere near complete agreement) have done some minimal and arguably flawed charting type work around the subject of freedom tho perhaps not in the way you want. I don't have the work to hand but it shouldn't be that hard to find. Then there's the 'public poll' approach. If you want to find out how much freedom people have, you _ask_ them. A lot of things are done on this sort of basis, rightly or wrongly. In any event, I would argue that, if you want a tool to help quantify the amount of freedom in a society, you need look no further than the (true)rate of taxation since, at least by my definition, taxation and freedom have a very strong inverse relationship. In this way, with considerable work, it likely ought to be possible to derive the kind of chart you seek. I don't know that anyone's ever done it. R -- http://www.quen.net "Fix reason firmly in her seat and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there is one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." --Thomas Jefferson _______________________________________________ General mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/general
