I am an American living in China. I don't know Chinese and that can be a problem, but I manage. But to say that it is freer, would be a stretch. I believe your best bet might be Singapore or Hong Kong, both of which are often regarded as the freest places to live. They are not however very cheap, but both have large populations that speak English. Thailand, also has a large expat population speaking multiple languages and it is very inexpensive, but not necessarily freer.
Having said all of the above does not address whether or not you can make a living in those places.
There is a very good book by two economists: Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine called "Against Intellectual Monopoly" in which they cite example after example of real empirical evidence that dispels the claims of the value of IP. The claim that IP is necessary to spur innovation, and protect profits to repay all of the research required is not supported by actual evidence.
They put their money where their mouth is in that the book is in the creative commons and can be downloaded as a free pdf at http://mises.org/books/against.pdf
The government already gives tons of money for research through college/universities. The problem is that the fruits of those research projects end up with patents for private corporations (think patent medicine) and the taxpayers end up funding these companies which in turn, end up charging us outrageous amounts to purchase these products. So, this system is socialized research for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.
This is just one example, but in essence, I have a problem with any government funding based on the fact that the government must first steal the resources from the taxpayers before it can give the funds over for research. Added to this fact the lack of evidence that government funded research is any better than private research. The only benefit, if it exists, is it can force a particular program that may not be economical for private enterprise.
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I am an American living in China. I don't know Chinese and that can be a problem, but I manage. But to say that it is freer, would be a stretch. I believe your best bet might be Singapore or Hong Kong, both of which are often regarded as the freest places to live. They are not however very cheap, but both have large populations that speak English. Thailand, also has a large expat population speaking multiple languages and it is very inexpensive, but not necessarily freer. Having said all of the above does not address whether or not you can make a living in those places.
There is a very good book by two economists: Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine called "Against Intellectual Monopoly" in which they cite example after example of real empirical evidence that dispels the claims of the value of IP. The claim that IP is necessary to spur innovation, and protect profits to repay all of the research required is not supported by actual evidence. They put their money where their mouth is in that the book is in the creative commons and can be downloaded as a free pdf at http://mises.org/books/against.pdf
The government already gives tons of money for research through college/universities. The problem is that the fruits of those research projects end up with patents for private corporations (think patent medicine) and the taxpayers end up funding these companies which in turn, end up charging us outrageous amounts to purchase these products. So, this system is socialized research for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. This is just one example, but in essence, I have a problem with any government funding based on the fact that the government must first steal the resources from the taxpayers before it can give the funds over for research. Added to this fact the lack of evidence that government funded research is any better than private research. The only benefit, if it exists, is it can force a particular program that may not be economical for private enterprise.