What Is Economic Freedom?

Learn how excessive government spending and regulations are eroding economic freedom in the United States at EconomicFreedom.org.

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Economic freedom is a system in which private property rights are fully respected under an impartial and beneficial rule of law; where people are free to voluntarily trade for what they need and want; that they have sound money which gives people an effective medium of exchange. Finally, government is kept small and limited to those activities that contribute to societal well-being, rather than undermine it.

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Recommended reading

• Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics,
  by Henry Hazlitt
• Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy, by Thomas Sowell
• The Law, by Frederic Bastiat
• The Use of Knowledge in Society, by F.A. Hayek
• Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity,
  by Gwartney, Stroup, Lee and Ferrarini
• Why Wages Rise, by Baldy Harper
• What is Seen and What is Not Seen, by Frederic Bastiat
• I, Pencil, by Leonard Read

• The Road to Serfdom, by F.A. Hayek
• The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism, The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek
• Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, by Milton and Rose Friedman
• Capitalism and Freedom, by Milton Friedman
• A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles, by Thomas Sowell
• The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company,
  by Charles G. Koch
• How The West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation Of The Industrial World,
  by Nathan Rosenberg and L.E. Birdzell, Jr.
• In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government, by Charles Murray

• Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, by Ludwig von Mises
• Constitution of Liberty, by F.A. Hayek