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27 Examples of Economic Freedoms

John Spacey, March 09, 2023

Economic freedoms are the fundamental rights of people to engage in economic activity without undue interference. This includes rights and freedoms that are highly specific to economic systems such as property rights that underpin capitalism. Economic freedoms are also quite broad and related to a number of fundamental freedoms. For example, you couldn't engage in normal economic activity without freedom of movement. The following are illustrative examples of economic freedoms.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness	Freedom of Contract
Freedom to Conduct a Business	Freedom to Pursue an Occupation
Property Rights	Right of Collective Bargaining and Action
Consumer Protection Rights	Environmental Protection Rights
Freedom from Anti-competitive Practices	Freedom from Corruption
Freedom from Discrimination	Freedom from Slavery and Servitude
Freedom of Assembly & Association	Freedom of Expression and Information
Freedom of Movement	Prohibition of Child Labour
Rights of Persons with Disabilities	Right to Access Economic Infrastructure
Right to Access Markets	Right to Education
Right to Engage in Work	Right to Fair Working Conditions
Right to Marry and Right to Found a Family	Right to Protection Against Unjustified Dismissal
Right to Take Part in Cultural Life	Rule of Law
Social Security and Social Assistance Rights

The list above is based on the constitutions, charters and similar documents of The United States, Japan and the European Union. It is also based on the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union has quite a few highly specific economic rights such as the Right of Access to [job] Placement Services.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states "Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community." This can be broadly interpreted. For example, it is difficult to live a cultured life without disposable income and leisure time such as weekends.

The Right to Access Economic Infrastructure relates to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which grants "access to services of general economic interest."

Freedom from anti-competitive practices relates to regulation of business to preserve fair competition. Laissez-faire capitalism without any regulations would likely end with a single monolithic monopoly controlling everything. This situation would ironically resemble communism.

One person's rights can become another person's oppression. As such, there is always a question of how to balance competing rights and freedoms. For example, you may have the freedom to start a car company but you probably wouldn't have the right to sell cars that are unusually dangerous as this would conflict with rights to consumer protection, safety and security.

27 Examples of Economic Freedoms

Freedom

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