Is the following country more or less free than the US?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

-the government owns most major utilities and provides basic things like electricity and running water for free
-all drugs are legal, however people who use hard drugs or tobacco are ineligible for government provided free healthcare
-private schools are illegal, and public schools are completely prohibited from using corporal punishment or establishing anything more than a very basic dress code with school uniforms speficially prohibited
-prostitution is legal, but only in government-ran brothels. Pimping is illegal. Anyone visiting or working in a brothel must have a license, which one must have a health check for STDs to obtain.
-contraceptives are completely free and government provided
-there is no censorship of TV or the media. If a channel wants to show hardcore porn at 7 pm, they can
-fashion magazines which show mostly models with figures that a normal woman can get only through anorexia or bulemia are illegal
-suburbs are now allowed to develop. all areas in a metro are annexed to the inner city, and zoning laws are designed so that only dense urban development can happen, not suburban McMansions.
-Businesses are limited on how much they can pay their CEOs. They can only raise the pay for the highest paid executives if they do for the lowest wage workers as well

I vote more free.

[Jake]

Less

Can't choose a school, can't look at fashion magazines, can't live in areas you want, can't pay people what you want.  Oh, you're a hypocrite BTW.

[Akno21]

Hang on, why are fashion magazines banned that show unrealistic women, but not unrealistic women on TV?

[Jake]

Hang on, why are fashion magazines banned that show unrealistic women, but not unrealistic women on TV?

Read up to my post, BRTD's a hypocrite.

[dazzleman]

Less free, obviously.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Because that isn't linked to causing anorexia and bulemia deaths.

And if you say I'm a hypocrite because of my sex obsession I generally don't go for women who look like they come from a starving third world country. People who into those sticks should probably just move to North Korea.

[Cashcow]

Less free. I'd move to New Zealand.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I think most of us would agree that overall it's more free.

[Rob]

I think most of us would agree that overall it's more free.

No.

[A18]

Less free than the former Soviet Union. What kind of idiot question is this?

[Gabu]

-private schools are illegal, and public schools are completely prohibited from using corporal punishment or establishing anything more than a very basic dress code with school uniforms speficially prohibited

Banning private schools is not exactly freedom.

-suburbs are now allowed to develop. all areas in a metro are annexed to the inner city, and zoning laws are designed so that only dense urban development can happen, not suburban McMansions.

Now that's definitely not free.

-Businesses are limited on how much they can pay their CEOs. They can only raise the pay for the highest paid executives if they do for the lowest wage workers as well

I'm in favor of a low minimum wage, but definitely not a maximum wage.

I vote less free.  The only freedoms that you've given in place of the ones you've taken away - stuff like the ability to watch porn at 7 pm and the ability to do drugs - are ones that aren't exactly central to a free nation.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Neither are private schools and suburbs. My life would be no worse if they didn't exist.

[Hitchabrut]

Less free than Singapore, definitely.

[Alcon]

-the government owns most major utilities and provides basic things like electricity and running water for free

Less free.

-all drugs are legal, however people who use hard drugs or tobacco are ineligible for government provided free healthcare

More free.

-private schools are illegal, and public schools are completely prohibited from using corporal punishment or establishing anything more than a very basic dress code with school uniforms speficially prohibited

Less free.

-prostitution is legal, but only in government-ran brothels. Pimping is illegal. Anyone visiting or working in a brothel must have a license, which one must have a health check for STDs to obtain.

More free.

-contraceptives are completely free and government provided

Irrelevant.

-there is no censorship of TV or the media. If a channel wants to show hardcore porn at 7 pm, they can

More free.

-fashion magazines which show mostly models with figures that a normal woman can get only through anorexia or bulemia are illegal

Less free.

-suburbs are now allowed to develop. all areas in a metro are annexed to the inner city, and zoning laws are designed so that only dense urban development can happen, not suburban McMansions.

I assume you mean "not," not "now." Less free.

-Businesses are limited on how much they can pay their CEOs. They can only raise the pay for the highest paid executives if they do for the lowest wage workers as well

Less free.

Overall, less free.

By the way, there is a major point a lot of people miss: Free is not synonymous with "good." It's very odd to see how much "freedom" has become a word with only a positive meaning. Being able to murder and get away with it is a freedom, but is it a good one?

Freedom is, by definition, the ability to do something. Banning suburbs is reducing people's freedom to live in a climate they want to. It takes away the freedom to create a private school if you outlaw private schools.

This country is for the most part less free.

[Jake]

Neither are private schools and suburbs. My life would be no worse if they didn't exist.

Your life BRTD, your life

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I don't care about my freedom to live in a hellhole I never would live in anyway or be able to open a school I never would. I would trade the freedom to those for something very minor like being able to have strippers in a place that serves alcohol be naked rather than just topless in a heartbeat.

[Gabu]

Neither are private schools and suburbs. My life would be no worse if they didn't exist.

I would say that the ability to get your child the education you'd like him or her to have and the ability to live in the environment that you'd like are a bit closer than being able to watch porn and do drugs.

Since when has "I don't like it" been a good reason to ban something?

I don't care about my freedom to live in a hellhole I never would live in anyway or be able to open a school I never would. I would trade the freedom to those for something very minor like being able to have strippers in a place that serves alcohol be naked rather than just topless in a heartbeat.

The hallmark of a truly free society is one in which people will defend not merely what they like, but also what they dislike because they believe in freedom for everyone.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Neither are private schools and suburbs. My life would be no worse if they didn't exist.

I would say that the ability to get your child the education you'd like him or her to have and the ability to live in the environment that you'd like are a bit closer than being able to watch porn and do drugs.

I would never send my kids to a private school if I even had one, and I'd never want to live a in a suburb anyway.

Since when has "I don't like it" been a good reason to ban something?

Ask the religious right.

[Alcon]

Neither are private schools and suburbs. My life would be no worse if they didn't exist.

I would say that the ability to get your child the education you'd like him or her to have and the ability to live in the environment that you'd like are a bit closer than being able to watch porn and do drugs.

I would never send my kids to a private school if I even had one, and I'd never want to live a in a suburb anyway.

Since when has "I don't like it" been a good reason to ban something?

Ask the religious right.

Gabu is right. Your moral standards are no more wrong or right than those of the right-wing Christians you make fun of. The fact is, when you say you want to ban suburbs, you are being just as morally uptight as those who want to ban, say, gay marriage. There is no real difference.

[Gabu]

Neither are private schools and suburbs. My life would be no worse if they didn't exist.

I would say that the ability to get your child the education you'd like him or her to have and the ability to live in the environment that you'd like are a bit closer than being able to watch porn and do drugs.

I would never send my kids to a private school if I even had one, and I'd never want to live a in a suburb anyway.

Yeah... I'm aware of that, but why is that a good reason to ban something?  If you don't like it, it seems to me that you can always just not send your kids to a private school and not live in a suburb.

Since when has "I don't like it" been a good reason to ban something?

Ask the religious right.

The fact that the religious right does it does not make it okay.  I don't like it when they do it, either.  It's not a secret that I don't like the religious right.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

OK, I have two states:

State A bans private schools and suburbs. But strippers can be naked in any strip club, even one that serves alcohol.

State B allows private schools and suburbs, but strippers can only be topless in places that serve alcohol. They can only be naked in non-alcoholic clubs.

State B is Minnesota, which I do like despite this minor inconveninece, but is there any reason I would prefer living in Minnesota to the ficticious State A?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Private schools are instruments of class repression.

Suburbs are terrible for the environment and cause urban decay.

[Gabu]

OK, I have two states:

State A bans private schools and suburbs. But strippers can be naked in any strip club, even one that serves alcohol.

State B allows private schools and suburbs, but strippers can only be topless in places that serve alcohol. They can only be naked in non-alcoholic clubs.

State B is Minnesota, which I do like despite this minor inconveninece, but is there any reason I would prefer living in Minnesota to the ficticious State A?

What you prefer has absolutely no relevance to the amount of freedom either state has.

[Alcon]

OK, I have two states:

State A bans private schools and suburbs. But strippers can be naked in any strip club, even one that serves alcohol.

State B allows private schools and suburbs, but strippers can only be topless in places that serve alcohol. They can only be naked in non-alcoholic clubs.

State B is Minnesota, which I do like despite this minor inconveninece, but is there any reason I would prefer living in Minnesota to the ficticious State A?

The law does not exist soley to make you happy, BRTD. You have an equal right to be happy as anyone else - including conservative Christians.

Your morals (ban suburbs, strippers OK) are no less rigid or uptight as those of conservative Christians (ban strippers, suburbs OK).

Private schools are instruments of class repression.

Suburbs are terrible for the environment and cause urban decay.

And conservative Christians believe public schools are instruments of moral decay and inner cities are violence-plagued hellholes full of poverty.

[Jake]

OK, I have two states:

State A bans private schools and suburbs. But strippers can be naked in any strip club, even one that serves alcohol.

State B allows private schools and suburbs, but strippers can only be topless in places that serve alcohol. They can only be naked in non-alcoholic clubs.

State B is Minnesota, which I do like despite this minor inconveninece, but is there any reason I would prefer living in Minnesota to the ficticious State A?

That really seems like a minor inconvenience BRTD.  Topless dancers, I would assume, are just as good as fully nude dancers.  Could you go into why this rule inconveniences you?