Zimran Ahmed remarks on an article in Reason, by Nick Gillespie, that, in response to Pacific Research’s Economic Freedom Index, asserts that the cost of living in New York is a bargain. The way Gillespie puts it, economic freedom is boring. Zimran, on the other hand,
I think it makes more sense to turn the causality around and say that great places to live (New York, San Francisco) can bear the cost of lousy, expensive government because they are great places to live. People will put up with a more annoying and expensive life because the side benefits are worth it. The cities aren’t fun because they have costly, lousy government, instead they have accrued costly, lousy government because their fun makes it bearable.