Stunning results rolling in late Thursday night indicate that the United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union.While free trade helps human flourishing, the European Union didn’t fulfill its promise and potential and instead too often did the opposite. Sometimes a divorce is what you need to hit the reset button and begin again.Matt Ridley, a columnist for the U.K. Times and a member of the House of Lords, articulated this well in support of Brexit in a Wall Street Journal oped:[T]he EU’s obsession with harmonization (of currency and rules) frustrates innovation. Using as an excuse the precautionary principle or the need to get 28 countries to agree, the EU gets in the way of the new. “Technological progress is often hindered or almost impossible in Europe,” says Markus Beyrer, director general of BusinessEurope, a confederation of industry groups. Consequently, we’ve been left behind in digital technology: There are no digital giants in Europe to rival Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook.The EU is also against free trade. It says it isn’t, but its actions speak louder. The EU has an external tariff that deters African farmers from exporting their produce to us, helping to perpetuate poverty there, while raising prices in Europe.…
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