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guest_
· 5 years ago
· FIRST
I don’t think any intelligent American can argue other countries do not have freedom. In fact- many countries rate higher for freedom than America on several indexes meant to calculate freedom. It’s important to remember that there are different KINDS of freedom. For instance most measures of freedom count crime rate against overall freedom since high crime correlates to high danger, and high danger restricts the ability of a person with any concern for safety from conducting their lives as they see fit.
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guest_
· 5 years ago
But it’s somewhat moot. Say a country has poor rates of prosecution of arrest, or poor record keeping. The crime rate reported would be lower than the actual crime rate. Now- say a country has fewer or even no laws. The same action that is criminal elsewhere is not there. So a crime cannot be committed since it is not a crime- but the net result of the behavior is still a danger that restricts the ability of a people to safety live. Counter- a nation with very restrictive laws and effective prosecution might have a lower per capita crime rate but higher reported crime rate.
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Edited 5 years ago
guest_
· 5 years ago
These are extremes not to be taken literally- but are examples to illustrate that the model on which a metric of freedom is deduced is often flawed, and that TYPES of freedom are relative. No one is fewer than those living in anarchy- but anarchy paradoxically lacks freedom too.
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guest_
· 5 years ago
In an anarchy- one cannot simply stroll about enjoying their new expensive clothes because anyone at any time could take those clothes or your life. In an anarchy there are no laws preventing you from conducting any type of commerce- but you are also not free to conduct any commerce you wish because the inherent dangers and instabilities of said anarchy restrict the prudent ability to do so.
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guest_
· 5 years ago
In other words- freedom is in many ways an abstract. Even the people of the USSR had some degree and some types of freedom. Freedom is a composite of many things. There may be no laws to tell a person not to do or say a thing- but what does it matter that they are free on paper to do so if crossing some ill defined line means disappearing in the middle of the night?
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guest_
· 5 years ago
What does it matter if you are free to marry who you like, but if you choose to marry a certain type of person you are barred from certain activities or commerce available to others?
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guest_
· 5 years ago
A paradox that has come up on this very site in discussions of discrimination is this: If you provide freedom of commerce by making discrimination illegal- you remove the freedom of an individual to act as they like. You take their freedom over their property or well being. You give autonomy to one and take a different sort of autonomy from another. That is freedom. A balance.
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guest_
· 5 years ago
Different countries and even the people in those countries prioritize freedom differently. They draw different lines on where an individuals rights to act in whatever way they want for whatever reason they want- best or or bested by the right of the general population to do the same.
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guest_
· 5 years ago
The “order of nature” is the strong have their way. The rich, the powerful. Each nation and the people in it view this differently. A large corporation and those who own it have freedoms to operate their business as they like. That operation may take advantage of those weaker than them. Protecting the weak from abuse by the strong- keeping those with strength in numbers from subjugating those without- or not: is a balance of freedom.
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guest_
· 5 years ago
The “greater good” versus the individual. For instance: in a group of 20, 19 want peanut butter cake for the party but one has a peanut allergy. A value of freedom: do we give the majority of 19 a peanut butter cake if that means the 1 cannot go to the party, or do 19 people lose their choice on the type of cake for the 1? Do we force a compromise against overwhelming majority for the inclusion of a small minority, or exclude the minority completely?
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guest_
· 5 years ago
These are questions of freedom. Of what it means to us. So there is freedom all over the world. There were people who were very happy in Soviet Russia and people who were literally dying to get out. There are people who want to bring back the old ways of the nation, and people who do not.
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guest_
· 5 years ago
Right now- we see that the people of Hong Kong do not want to live under the Chinese idea of freedom for them. Yet- there are many in China who live their country and wouldn’t leave it because they feel they have a good life. A good balance. In America we fight all the time with each other over what freedom should mean. Who gets what. It’s all relative.
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cheesecrackers
· 5 years ago
ok first of all fahrenheit is the only part of the imperial system that is superior to metric. Its so much more precise.
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