Human (Fearless Rick): From a U.S. perspective, these comparisons are questionable, and very much globalist (Western) influenced. Also, ranking Canada ahead of the U.S. is just plain silly and wrong. Canadians have been subjected to waves of socailism and repression since the pandemic and the level of government control only seems to be growing.

The same can be said of most of Western Europe. Germany gets a 93 and England a 92 (or 91), both higher than the U.S., even though people in those contries are being charged with crimes and going to jail for things they post on the internet, like Facebook, X, or Youtube.

At the same time, that Freedom Index has most of Asia and Africa in the low 20s or even single digits. Russia is 13. China, 9. Those countries do not seem to be quite that oppressive. This "freedom index" is, in a word, Rubbish.

Freedom in the U.S. Through the Years (AI)

Fifty Years Ago (c. 1975)

By the mid-1970s, America was still reaping the gains of the Civil Rights era: the Civil Rights Act (1964) outlawed segregation and banned discrimination in public accommodations and employment, and the Voting Rights Act (1965) prohibited racial barriers at the polls. These landmark laws marked a seismic shift toward genuine political equality for Black Americans, though full enforcement took years - and in recent decades new challenges to voting access have emerged.

A Century Back (c. 1925)

Not long after World War I, American suffrage expanded dramatically: the 19th Amendment (1920) granted women the vote nationwide, and the Indian Citizenship Act (1924) conferred U.S. citizenship on Native Americans born in the country - even though many states continued to disenfranchise them through local laws for decades more. These measures signaled a move away from the founders' narrow franchise and set a course toward universal adult suffrage.

Two Centuries Ago (c. 1825)

In the "Era of Good Feelings" under President James Monroe (1817-1825), partisan rancor waned, but political liberty still meant little for most. Voting rights were restricted by property and taxpaying requirements that excluded nearly all women, free people of color and poor whites, and chattel slavery persisted across the South. The lofty assertion of "all men are created equal" in 1776 applied only to white landowning males, with the vast majority of Americans denied basic political and personal freedoms.

Freedoms at Risk in the 21st Century

Even as Americans enjoy robust constitutional rights, recent trends threaten their scope and quality. Democratic institutions have suffered erosion, reflected in rising political polarization and extremism, partisan pressure on the electoral process, mistreatment in the criminal justice and immigration systems, and growing disparities in wealth and political influence. Internally, the U.S. faces identity conflicts, populist-authoritarian currents, racism and anti-Semitism that echo the global threats undermining democracies today. Digital surveillance and social-media disinformation further strain freedom of expression and civic trust.

Conclusion

Two hundred and forty-nine years after Independence, America remains among the world's freest nations, but its lead has narrowed. Historical expansions of liberty, from abolishing slavery to extending the voting franchise to women and minorities, underscore a resilient but unfinished march toward equality. Preserving and deepening those gains will demand renewed commitment to rule-of-law safeguards, equal voting access, accountable policing, economic fairness and a public sphere in which facts, dissent and debate flourish.

Human response:

There's little argument to AI's historical perspective. From a civil rights standpoint, the 1960s saw great changes. The woman's suffrage movement was equally important in the early 20th century. However, voting rights alone don't cover the full spectrum. From mandatory use of seat belts in the 1960s to the Patriot Act after 9/11, Americans' rights of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to privacy guaranteed by the fifth amendment have been under assault.

America today is controlled by mainstream media narratives, over-reaching government rules, dictates, and regulations, and social media constraints. Starting a business in many U.S. states is also an increasingly tiresome and costly burden. What people in their 20s and 30s fail to comprehend because they never lived through it, is that life in America was arguably many times better and more "liberal" than what is presented today.

America has lost its grip on freedom, and mostly because of the growth of governments, not just at the federal level, but at state and local as well.

Sources:

https://freedomforallamericans.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/The-State-of-Freedom-in-America-Today_-A-Comparative-Human-Rights-Perspective.pdf

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/freedom-index-by-country

https://couragetobecurious.com/timeline-freedoms-u-s-a/

https://www.fondapol.org/en/study/freedoms-at-risk-the-challenge-of-the-century/

AI: Here are nine concrete steps individuals can take right now to safeguard their liberties - drawing on both international human?rights practice and the U.S. constitutional tradition:

1. Know Your Rights
Study the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and your own constitution - start with the first 18 articles of the UDHR and the Bill of Rights.

2. Vote and Participate Locally
Register for every election (local, state, federal) and turn out on Election Day.
Attend town hall meetings and candidate forums to hold officials accountable.

3. Engage in Peaceful Advocacy
Organize or join nonviolent protests, letter-writing campaigns, and petitions around issues you care about - public pressure changes policy.

4. Support a Free Press
Subscribe to and share reputable local and independent media outlets.
Push back against censorship and "cancel culture" by defending diverse viewpoints.

5. Guard Your Digital Privacy
Use end-to-end encrypted messaging (Signal, WhatsApp), enable two-factor authentication and VPNs, and audit app permissions.

6. Build Community Networks
Join or create grassroots civic groups - whether community gardens, neighborhood watch, civil liberties associations or online forums to amplify your voice through collective action.

7. Use Legal Tools
File Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to expose government overreach.
Support or volunteer with public-interest law firms and civil rights organizations that challenge unjust laws and practices.

8. Practice Media Literacy
Verify news with fact-checking sites (e.g., Snopes, FactCheck.org).
Learn to spot disinformation tactics - clickbait, manipulated images, partisan "deepfakes."

9. Cultivate Civic Virtue
Engage friends and family in reasoned debate - democracy thrives on an informed, empathetic citizenry.
Model tolerance, curiosity and respect for due-process in your daily interactions.

Taken together, these steps help shore up personal liberties in both the digital and physical realms by combining knowledge of your rights with active civic engagement, legal recourse and community solidarity.

Human Response: Learn a skill, become expert at it. Grow at least some of your own food. Engage in barter and trade outside the U.S. dollar system. Buy and horde gold and silver. Investigate and use, if possible, alternative energy sources, especially solar and small hydro. Become self-reliant and resilient to change.

Sources:

https://www.wikihow.com/Take-Steps-to-Protect-Human-Rights

https://brownfirmpllc.com/how-does-the-constitution-protect-my-individual-rights/

https://www.usconstitution.net/constitutional-protection-of-rights/

AI: Rights and Taxation in America

Since 1900, the federal government has grown from a lean wartime-era actor to a behemoth that now commands roughly a quarter of the nation's economic output. Key milestones:

Federal Receipts and Expenditures as Share of GDP

Between 1900 and 2012, federal tax receipts climbed from just 3.0 percent of GDP to 16.5 percent, while outlays ballooned from 2.7 percent to 24.0 percent, driven by the New Deal, World War II mobilization and the expansion of social welfare and defense programs.

Nondefense Spending

In 1925, nondefense expenditures consumed only about 1.5 percent of GDP. By 2023, domestic (nondefense) programs such as Social Security, Medicare, education and infrastructure accounted for 18.6 percent of GDP - more than a twelvefold increase in less than a century.

Taxation Through the Decades

Pre-1913 Era: Revenues came almost entirely from customs duties, excise levies (e.g., whiskey, tobacco) and postal receipts. The Civil War spawned a one-off income tax in 1862, but Congress repealed it after the conflict. Tariffs and "sin taxes" remained the federal government's chief funding sources into the 20th century.

Permanent Income Tax (1913): Ratification of the 16th Amendment on February 3, 1913 empowered Congress to levy a direct income tax without apportionment among the states, ushering in the modern tax system.

Top Marginal-Rate Trajectory:

• 1913: 1 percent-7 percent
• World War I peak (1917): 67 percent
• World War II apex (1944): 94 percent
• 1932-1981: top rate never below 60 percent, including 13 peacetime years above 90 percent
• 1980s-1990s: Reagan cuts drove it below 50 percent; by 1993 it rested at 39.6 percent
• 2017 (TCJA): top rate fell to 37 percent.

Fiscal Balance and Deficits

Before the Depression-era New Deal, the federal budget was frequently balanced or in surplus during peacetime. Post-1930s, deficits became the norm, averaging over 3 percent of GDP in recent decades and fueling a national debt that now exceeds 100 percent of annual economic output (GDP).

Taken together, these trends reflect a century of sweeping federal intrusions into economic life - financed by an income-tax apparatus that, at its mid-century zenith, confiscated the lion's share of the nation's marginal earnings. Understanding that history is crucial for debates over the proper scale of government and the burden of taxation on future generations.

https://bing.com/search?q=growth+of+federal+government+US+history

https://www.cato.org/blog/century-federal-spending-1925-2025

https://bing.com/search?q=US+taxation+levels+history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_taxation_in_the_United_States

https://mikestoolbox.com/us-tax-history.html

Federal, state and local government outlays as a share of U.S. GDP, 2020-2025:

Notes:
- Federal outlays are from the Congressional Budget Office's historical tables (including pandemic relief in '20-'21).
- State and local spending shares come from the Census Bureau's Annual Survey of Government Finances (consumption + transfers) divided by BEA GDP estimates.
- The 2022 federal figure (25.0%) comes from the USA Debt Now tracker: $6.27 trillion federal outlays ~ 25% of GDP.
- 2025 estimates (federal $7.27 T, state $3.49 T, local $3.09 T on GDP ~ $29.34 T) are from USGovernmentSpending.com.

* - Estimated/budgeted.

https://bing.com/search?q=federal+state+local+government+spending+GDP+2020-2025

https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/details

Below is a three-pronged comparison of what an average American paid in federal taxes in 1825, 1925 and 2025, shown as (1) nominal dollars, (2) inflation-adjusted to 2024 dollars, and (3) share of personal income (or GDP per capita in the early period).

- For 1825 we use federal receipts as a share of GDP, since there was no personal income tax.
- Computed as 2.8 % GDP per capita ($1,570 in 1825 dollars).
- 14.9 % of the 2023 median income ($80,610) ? $12,010.

Key takeaways:
- In the early Republic the federal government skimmed barely 3 % of economic output - roughly a few dollars per person - funded by tariffs and excise levies.
- A century later, the new income tax still touched only the well-to-do; filers paid on average just $176, or 3.35 % of their earnings (~ $3,210 today).
- By 2025, the typical American household sees nearly 15 % of its income go to federal coffers - about $12,000 a family - while total government revenue (federal, state & local) now approaches 27% of GDP.

That rise - from a few dollars per head to four-figure checks - reflects the enormous growth in the scope of government over 200 years, and it helps explain why debates about tax burdens and public services remain front-and-center in American politics.

References
"History of taxation in the United States," Wikipedia (federal receipts ~ 2.8 % of GDP in 1825)
Jessica Walrack et al., "How Much Household Staples Cost in 1925 vs. 2025," U.S. News (avg. income $5,425; avg. tax 3.35 % ? $176; median 2023 income $80,610; avg. tax 14.9 % ? $12,010)

https://bing.com/search?q=average+taxes+paid+US+citizen+1825+inflation+adjusted

https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/saving-and-budgeting/articles/how-much-household-staples-cost-in-1925-vs-2025

Sources and methods:
1. 1825 Federal receipts ran about 2.8 percent of GDP, almost entirely from customs and excise duties. U.S. population was ~13 million; 2.8 percent of 1825 GDP per capita (~$1,350) yields roughly $38 of taxes per person at the time, which is about $1,200 in today's dollars (CPI).

2. In 1925, total federal receipts reached $2.7 billion against a $75 billion GDP, or 3.6 percent of output. With 1925 population at ~115 million, that's about $29 per person then - ~$460 today.

3. CBO projects 2025 federal receipts at 17.5 percent of a $29 trillion GDP (~$5.1 trillion revenues); with U.S. population near 345 million, the per-capita burden is roughly $14,800 in 2025 dollars (which equals ~$14,800 in 2024 CPI dollars).

References:
[1] "History of taxation in the United States," Wikipedia: federal receipts ~ 2.8 % of GDP in 1825
[2] Office of Management and Budget, Historical Tables, Table 2.1: federal receipts as percent of GDP, 1925
[3] Congressional Budget Office, Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2025-2035: receipts projection 17.5 % of GDP for 2025
[4] U.S. Census Bureau, "Population of the United States in 1825": 13.3 million
[5] U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates for 1925: 115.6 million
[6] U.S. Census Bureau, Population Projections for 2025: 340 million
[7] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Inflation Calculator: 1825-2024 factor (~35)
[8] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Inflation Calculator: 1925-2024 factor (~16.2) [9] U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census & Population Estimates"

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