INFANT mortality is a rarely used measure of economic strength but, ultimately, it could be regarded as the key performance indicator.
INFANT mortality is a rarely used measure of economic strength but, ultimately, it could be regarded as the key performance indicator.
The ability for children to survive childbirth and prosper during the vulnerable start to life is one of the great advances of the Western world, separating the advanced economies from those that have failed to make progress.
And, as a new discussion paper released by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA proposes, that key measure is likely to be lowest where economic freedom is greatest – as will be other key measures which makes life more tolerable to more people, such as unemployment and inflation.
Conversely, gross domestic product per capita and life expectancy, two things that humans strive to increase, are at their highest where economic freedom is provided.
CCIWA’s ‘In Support of Free Enterprise’ document, launched as a response to fears of growing state intervention in business as a result of the global financial crisis, shows that countries with the greatest economic freedom, including Australia ranked at three in the world, reap these important rewards for their populations.
According to CCIWA research, Hong Kong and Singapore both sit ahead of Australia in the 2009 Index of Economic Freedom, as does their infant mortality, measured at 2.92 per 1,000 births for the former and 2.31 for the latter.
Australia, at 4.75, does rank lower in this regard than several other less economically free nations, such as Denmark, Japan, Germany and even economically less-free France. Nevertheless, in terms of other important criteria such as unemployment and life expectancy, we are hard to beat.
And this is the point that CCIWA wants to make in its paper, which was to be launched this week by Wesfarmers managing director Richard Goyder.
Diversified industrial Wesfarmers is the nation’s biggest private sector employer with a retail empire across the country that includes Coles supermarkets, Bunnings hardware and Office Works.
Mr Goyder said free enterprise was a subject he was passionate about because it lifted the wealth of the community, which in turn allowed improvements in everyday life.
He said it was a form of virtuous circle.
“Countries that have a vibrant free-enterprise sector have a much greater standard of living,” Mr Goyder said.
In defending free enterprise as positive and sustainable, if not flawless, CCIWA points to areas where there is a risk of GFC-linked erosion of economic freedom.
It points to rising regulation, reductions in market freedoms and criticism of globalisation as some of the trends that threaten free enterprise and the benefits that flow from it.
Rather than over-reacting to ill-feeling about market forces, the CCIWA paper suggests that there are places where government can continue to have a positive impact on free enterprise, such as ensuring markets are open to competition, the regulatory burden is reduced for business and the public sector is operating efficiently.
