 Originally published on Substack. Texas ranks fourth nationally with an overall score of 8.15 in the Economic Freedom of North America report recently published by the Fraser Institute.  The ranking, based on 2023 data, places Texas firmly among the most economically free states in the country.
But the more important signal in the data is not where Texas ranks now. It is how the state has had excessive spending and high property taxes weigh on economic freedom today and in the coming years. Texas’s economic success is visible first in the labor market. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Texas had one of the fastest job creation rates in 2023 (and thereafter). Employment growth has consistently exceeded the national average, while unemployment rates have generally remained below the U.S. rate. When marginal tax rates on work are zero and labor markets are flexible, employers expand, and workers respond. The economic output data tell the same story. The Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that Texas’s real GDP growth was a leader in 2023, driven by private-sector expansion. Capital flows toward jurisdictions where expected after-tax returns are higher, and policy risk is lower. Texas has benefited from that reality for decades. The EFNA index explains why. Texas scores well on taxation and labor-market regulation, largely because it imposes no personal income tax and maintains comparatively flexible employment rules. Those institutional features reduce distortions on work, saving, and investment, raising long-run growth potential. Yet the same EFNA data also reveal why Texas’s ranking has flattened rather than improved in recent years. The binding constraint today is not necessarily taxes or labor policy. It is government spending growth at the state and local levels. Since at least the mid-2010s, state and local spending in Texas has grown substantially faster than population growth plus inflation, meaning government now consumes a larger share of personal income than it once did. EFNA measures spending relative to income because this ratio determines how much private activity is crowded out. When the government expands faster than the economy and taxes rise to fund it, economic freedom declines. Property taxes are the primary transmission mechanism. Texas constitutionally bans income taxes, wealth taxes, and state property taxes, but relies heavily on sales taxes to fund state spending and local property taxes to finance local budgets. Property-tax collections have risen faster than household incomes, raising effective tax rates even when statutory rates appear unchanged. From an economic perspective, this is not neutral. Higher property taxes can raise the cost of housing and capital formation, reduce real wages over time, and slow investment, especially in high-tax metropolitan areas. Public-sector employment growth reinforces the trend. BLS data show government employment rising faster than private employment in recent years. EFNA penalizes this pattern because it signals higher future tax burdens or debt service. Economic theory predicts the outcome: slower productivity growth and weaker private-sector dynamism. Directionally, Texas has held its rank while peer states have closed the gap. That is an important distinction. The EFNA report relies on 2023 data, which means recent policy changes about restraint are not yet reflected. What is reflected is the cumulative effect of spending decisions made over the past decade. Rankings move slowly because institutions change slowly. That is a feature, not a flaw. The Fraser Institute’s findings are consistent across time and geography. States with higher economic freedom exhibit higher income levels, stronger labor-force participation, faster job creation, and greater net in-migration. Texas still benefits from those advantages. But the data now show that fiscal drift could erode the margin. The lesson is not ideological. It is arithmetic. Economic freedom helped build the Texas Model. Preserving it now requires discipline. If government spending growth continues to outpace population growth plus inflation, Texas’s comparative advantage will narrow, then disappear. Growth can mask that reality for a while. It cannot undo it.
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 Originally published at Kansas Policy Institute. Kansas ranks 14th nationally, with an overall score of 7.12, in the Economic Freedom of North America report published by the Fraser Institute. The ranking, based on 2023 data, places Kansas just outside the top quartile of states. That position tells a precise economic story. Kansas has restored stability after years of fiscal turbulence from the excessive spending under Governor Kelly and the lack of spending restraint to go with then-Governor Brownback’s tax cuts. And yet, the conditions for sustained acceleration have not been met.  The labor market illustrates the point. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Kansas’ unemployment rate has remained relatively low since 2021 and generally tracks close to the national average. That outcome reflects a labor market that has absorbed shocks without prolonged dislocation. But stability is not the same as expansion. Job growth in Kansas has largely tracked population growth rather than exceeding it, indicating limited growth in labor demand rather than a tight labor supply.
Economic freedom, or lack thereof, can help explain the difference. States that consistently outperform improve labor demand by reducing barriers to investment and expansion. EFNA measures this through labor-market flexibility, tax burdens, and government size relative to income. Kansas performs reasonably well on labor markets, with relatively low union density and predictable employment rules. Recent tax reforms also improved marginal incentives and reduced uncertainty compared with earlier periods of policy volatility. But EFNA indicates that these improvements did not translate into a higher overall ranking for The Sunflower State. Government spending grew faster than personal income, particularly during recent revenue windfalls during COVID-19. Because EFNA measures spending as a share of income, this expansion directly reduced the spending component score and offset gains elsewhere. This matters economically. Higher government spending today implies higher taxes or debt tomorrow. Even when budgets appear balanced, households and firms adjust their behavior based on expected future burdens. The result is lower capital formation and slower productivity growth. Property taxes are the clearest channel. While attention often focuses on state-level income taxes, local property-tax collections in Kansas have continued to rise, increasing the cost of capital and housing. From an economic perspective, shifting the tax burden rather than reducing it does not increase freedom. EFNA treats the combined state-and-local burden as what matters, because that is what households and firms actually face. Output data reinforce the diagnosis. The Bureau of Economic Analysis’s state GDP figures show Kansas real GDP growth lagging that of faster-reforming peers such as Oklahoma and Nebraska in 2023, particularly in private investment–intensive sectors. Kansas has grown, but more slowly in sectors with the highest capital mobility. That is exactly what economic theory predicts when spending growth leads to higher taxes, thereby weakening expected returns. Directionally, Kansas’s EFNA ranking improved earlier in the last decade, then flattened in recent years. That pattern is coherent. Initial reforms improved labor and tax components, lifting the score. Subsequent spending growth offset those gains, producing a plateau. The EFNA report uses 2023 data, meaning recent discussions about spending restraint or tax base reform are not yet reflected. What is reflected is the cumulative effect of decisions made during surplus years. This timing distinction matters for policymakers. EFNA should be read as a report card on past policy choices, not a forecast of future outcomes. If spending restraint becomes institutionalized, it will show up in future rankings. If not, Kansas will remain stuck just outside the top tier. The long-run findings of the Fraser Institute are consistent across decades. States with higher economic freedom experience stronger job creation, higher incomes, greater capital inflows, and more upward mobility. Kansas has laid part of that foundation. Labor markets are flexible. Taxes are more competitive than they once were. What remains is the hardest part of reform: restraint during good times. Kansas does not need new incentives or targeted programs. It needs consistency. Without binding limits on spending growth tied to population growth and inflation, further reforms will yield diminishing returns. Stability has been restored. Whether Kansas accelerates from here will depend on whether economic freedom is allowed to compound.  Originally published on Substack.
“Free markets” get blamed for just about everything these days—high prices, inequality, corporate power, even government debt. That alone should make anyone curious. When one idea is blamed for every failure, it usually means the failures didn’t come from that idea at all. So let’s reset the conversation. Free-market economics is not chaos. It’s not greed. And it’s definitely not whatever passes for today’s mix of subsidies, bailouts, protectionism, and monetary manipulation. Free-market economics is a rules-based system built on voluntary exchange, price signals, and accountability. When those foundations are undermined, markets don’t fail—policy does. What free markets actually are At their core, free markets rest on a few simple principles. First, voluntary exchange. People trade because both sides expect to be better off. No mandates. No coercion. That discipline matters. When exchanges stop being voluntary, inefficiency and resentment follow. Second, prices as information. Prices are not just numbers; they are signals. They reflect scarcity, preferences, and opportunity costs. When governments cap prices, subsidize demand, or suppress interest rates, they destroy the very signals people rely on to make good decisions. Third, profit and loss. Profit rewards value creation. Loss punishes waste. Remove loss—through bailouts or guarantees—and you remove learning. That’s how bad decisions pile up instead of being corrected. Fourth, decentralization. No committee can know what millions of people know individually. Markets work because they disperse decision-making. Central planning fails because it concentrates error. This tradition runs through the best of economics—from Adam Smith to Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and modern institutional economics. It’s not radical. It’s realistic. What free markets are not Here’s where the confusion—and frustration—comes in. Free markets are not corporate welfare. When government picks winners, subsidizes losses, or protects firms from competition, that’s not capitalism. It’s favoritism or crony corporatism. Free markets are not protectionism. Tariffs are taxes. They raise costs, reduce choice, and invite retaliation. They protect politically connected producers while quietly punishing families and small businesses. Free markets are not monetary manipulation. Holding interest rates artificially low, expanding a multi-trillion-dollar balance sheet, and absorbing government debt does not stabilize markets. It distorts them. It inflates assets first, wages last, and widens inequality by design. Free markets are not regulatory micromanagement. Licensing barriers, zoning restrictions, certificate-of-need laws, and bureaucratic approvals don’t protect consumers. They protect incumbents. When politicians defend these policies and call them “capitalism,” they poison the well. Then they blame markets for the damage government caused. Why affordability keeps getting worse If free markets are so powerful, why does everything feel more expensive? Because we don’t have free markets where it matters most. Housing prices rise when zoning blocks supply. Healthcare costs explode when patients don’t control their dollars. College prices soar when subsidies inflate demand. Energy costs spike when production is restricted. In each case, policymakers focus on symptoms—prices—rather than causes: permission, scarcity, and distorted incentives. Markets lower costs when people are allowed to build, compete, innovate, and fail. Governments raise costs when they say “no,” then spend billions trying to fix the damage. The moral case still matters Free-market economics isn’t just efficient. It’s humane. It respects human dignity by letting people choose. It rewards effort rather than connections. It limits power by dispersing it. That’s why economic freedom correlates so strongly with higher incomes, longer life expectancy, and faster innovation. Prosperity isn’t accidental. It’s institutional. This is also why public-choice economics matters. Politicians respond to incentives just like everyone else—except their incentives are political, not economic. They get rewarded for spending today and passing the bill to tomorrow. Markets impose discipline. Politics evades it. Where this leaves us If we want real reform, we need to stop apologizing for free markets and start explaining them better. That means:
None of this is extreme. It’s foundational. I’ve spent my career pushing these ideas—not because they’re fashionable, but because they work. If you’ve found value here, I encourage you to share this post, subscribe if you haven’t already, and help bring clarity back to economic debates that desperately need it. Free-market capitalism doesn’t need reinvention. It needs honesty. That’s how we let people prosper.  Originally published on Substack.
Last night, I caught myself pausing in the living room. In just a few hours, my kids will step out of their rooms—still sleepy, still innocent—and turn the corner to a living room filled with presents. There will be that unmistakable twinkle in their eyes. Pure joy. Anticipation. Wonder. And I couldn’t help but ask myself the question every parent eventually does: Will they remember why we celebrate Christmas—or only what they receive? They know the story. We’ve told it. We’ve read Bible scriptures. We’ve prayed together. But knowing and remembering aren’t the same thing. One lasts a season. The other lasts a lifetime. That tension—between gifts and grace, celebration and substance—is what makes Christmas so powerful and so fragile at the same time. Christmas feels different as I get older. When you’re young, it’s about the gifts. When you’re building a career, it’s about the pace. But when you’re raising a family—while quietly carrying the weight of parents who passed too soon—it becomes something deeper. Heavier. More eternal. I miss my parents more during this season than at almost any other time of year. They helped lay the bricks in my path. Not all of them were gold. Some were chipped. Some were heavy. But they mattered. And without them, I wouldn’t be who I am today. Loss has a way of clarifying priorities. It strips away the noise and reminds us what actually endures: faith, family, love, and truth. It also reminds us that our time here is borrowed—and that how we use it matters far more than how comfortable we make it. That’s where Christmas meets reality. Christmas Day isn’t about nostalgia or tradition for tradition’s sake. It marks the most extraordinary claim in human history: God entered His own creation as a man. Jesus Christ wasn’t a symbol. He wasn’t a metaphor. He wasn’t a moral teacher who showed up to offer life hacks. He was—and is—God made flesh. The humility of that moment should stop us in our tracks. The Creator of the universe chose dependency. Chose vulnerability. Chose to be born not into power or wealth, but into obscurity. Not because humanity deserved it—but because we needed it. And here’s the part we don’t like to talk about much anymore: Nothing about that was free. Not grace. Not redemption. Not salvation. Christmas points directly to the cross. Jesus paid the ultimate price so that we could be reconciled to God. That truth alone should permanently shatter the modern lie that anything of real value comes without cost. Love costs. Forgiveness costs. Sacrifice costs. And salvation cost everything. That lesson matters far beyond theology—it shapes how we live. It reminds us that responsibility precedes reward. That meaning comes from service, not self. That freedom without truth collapses into chaos. It’s also why I believe so deeply in faith, family, free markets, and federalism. Not as slogans, but as systems that respect human dignity, responsibility, and choice—while acknowledging our limits. We flourish not because government directs us, but because people—imperfect people—are free to love, give, fail, repent, and try again. Voluntary exchange works not just in markets, but in life itself. We don’t notice it most days because, for the most part, it works quietly. Parents sacrifice for children. Friends show up when it’s hard. Communities carry one another when they stumble. That’s grace in action. As a father, my prayer tonight is simple. I pray my kids remember the joy—but more importantly, the reason. I pray they never confuse the gifts under the tree with the Gift that made Christmas possible. I pray they understand that love isn’t measured by what we receive, but by what we’re willing to give. And I pray that when they face hardship, loss, or uncertainty—as we all do—they stay anchored in Christ, not convenience. Because being centered in Christ doesn’t remove the storms. It gives us something solid to stand on when they hit. I’m deeply grateful for this community—more than 45,000 strong—made up of people from many walks of life who care about truth, liberty, and human flourishing. Your willingness to engage, challenge, and think deeply is a blessing I don’t take lightly. As we celebrate Christmas, my hope is that we slow down just enough to remember what matters most. Not the noise. Not the excess. Not the temporary. But the eternal hope born in a manger—the One who paid a price none of us could afford, so that we might live with purpose now and joy forever. Merry Christmas. May God bless you and your family—today and always. |
Vance Ginn, Ph.D.
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