I will be teaching a government class for homeschoolers starting on Friday, so I have been paying attention to articles about government and political theory. Here is an excerpt from an opinion piece that lends credence to the theories of Hayek and Friedman:
"In a just-concluded meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Iceland, some leaders of small states that have developed very successful economies met with some of the worlds' leading free-market economists and policy institute professionals, partly to discuss what lessons the rest of the world can learn from these small states. Mart Laar, former prime minister of Estonia, was the principle architect of his country's remarkable economic transformation from impoverished vassal of the Soviet Union into one of the world's freest (No. 4 in the world according to the 2005 Index of Economic Freedom) and most dynamic economies. Mr. Laar said he succeeded by following the teachings of Nobel Prize-winning economists F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman.
After obtaining freedom 15 years ago, Estonia rapidly moved to establish a rule of law, protect private property and create a sound currency. Estonia removed most price controls, discarded useless regulations, privatized most state-owned enterprises and established a free-trade regime. The result has been the largest percentage increase in real per capita incomes of any of the former communist states."
What I find interesting personally is that I have heard nothing about the success of Estonia over the past 15 years. I have only heard of the struggles of many of the former communist states, not about any successes.
Click on the title to read the entire article.
---Katie
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