MACKENZIE CENTER FOR ECONOMIC FREEDOM LAUNCHES STATE ECONOMIC FREEDOM INDEX

On November 8, 2017, the Mackenzie Center for Economic Freedom, launched the Mackenzie Index of State Economic Freedom (IMLEE). Economist Robert Lawson, director of the O'Neill Center for Global Markets and Freedom and a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute is one of the creators of the Economic Freedom Index, which assesses more than 150 countries around the world - published every year the press.

Professor Lawson was in Brazil yesterday. He came to accompany and honor the launch of the Mackenzie Index of State Economic Freedom.

If you think the issue of Economic Freedom is not so important, look at this case that occurred between November 7 and 08 of this year. The left-hand invoice is from a dinner in Stockholm (November 7). The one on the right is a lunch in São Paulo (November 08).

Sweden, which is a major importer of food, since agriculture is possible for only 3 or 6 months of the year (depending on the region) due to the harsh climate and is considered one of the most socially fair countries, with a very low level of income inequality: it charges only 12% of taxes at meal.

Brazil, one of the largest food producers in the world and with a catastrophic social protection system, more than doubles its food, without taking into account the cascade taxation of several tributes along the production chain. There is no reasonable explanation for this. Or there is. As Jean Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's finance minister and pioneer of seventeenth-century mercantilist theories, says:

"The art of raising taxes is like plucking a goose: you must remove as many feathers with as little noise as possible. "

To access the Economic Freedom panel, click here.

* Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Mackenzie Center for Economic Freedom. He was Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform