Report: Property Rights in America Weakening

The strength of property rights in the United States has declined over the past four years, a new report on property rights around the world has revealed. The Property Rights Alliance released its annual International Property Rights Index on Tuesday. The index ranks 131 countries based on how they score in three areas of property rights protection: legal and political environment, physical property rights, and intellectual property rights. The United States was ranked 17th in the world for property rights protections. The United States had an overall score of 7.6 out of 10, putting it behind such countries as Finland, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Germany. Its score puts it just ahead of Belgium, Ireland, France, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.  Intellectual property rights was the highest component of the U.S.’s score, coming in at 8.3 and putting it in a five-way tie for second in the world. However, the relative weakness of the U.S.’s physical property rights and legal protections dragged down the overall score. The United States ranked 23rd for legal protections with a score of 7.2 and 22nd for physical property rights with the same score. Those countries with stronger property rights protections tend to be wealthier, the report showed. A strong correlation exists between all three areas of property rights and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita...more