Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 October 2011 08:57 Written by dbhalling Wednesday, 12 October 2011 08:57

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A great video from the Economic Freedom blog shows how the U.S. has wiped out two decade of progress toward economic freedom in a nine years.  According to the video government spending and regulation take up 65% of the GDP.  Regulation by itself takes up 19% of GDP.  This means that the average goods and services in the U.S. have to be 23.4% higher in price just to pay for regulations.  Imagine how much “demand” would be opened up if the average price of goods and services were lowered by this amount.  To understand why the price of the average goods and services is 23.4% higher because of regulations see Austerity: Why it is Key for Both Short Term and Long Term Economic Growth.