I decided to take a look at how anyone would decide how to rank and file the States to see which ones were the 'most' free. It is an interesting read and after a bit of thought I can see how New York and California would be at the bottom. Both states have tremendous amounts of control. (i.e., fiscal, property, gun rights, and others). Both of these states are very populated and to some degree are very liberal overall.  Again, though, if we look at the map that ranks these states, Tennessee joins Oklahoma, South Dakota, and North Dakota at the top of the list and that makes me wonder if there isn't more to this than demographics. I concluded that if you want more freedom a move to North Dakota is inevitable.