The Fifth Freedom
When we think of “freedom” what usually comes first to mind is political freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to vote, and so on.
But political freedom is just one of several aspects of freedom. And not necessarily the most important one. Though we normally think of freedom as being indivisible, we can analyze it in different ways.
I’ve identified five different types or aspects of freedom:
1. Political Freedom
➢ Freedom of speech
➢ Freedom of thought/belief
2. Economic Freedom
➢ Property rights
➢ Keep what you earn
➢ Keep what you create
➢ Voluntary transactions between consenting adults
➢ The only prohibition: the initiation of force or fraud
The importance of property rights is often totally misunderstood. Everybody gotta be somewhere, right? If you haven’t got somewhere to stand, if you don’t have the right to be free within that space, then you can’t be free.
3. Financial Freedom
➢ The ability to “buy” political and/or economic freedom
The various possibilities include:
➢ Emigrating
➢ Buying a passport
➢ Marrying a citizen of another country
➢ Study or work abroad [and hope you can stay]
➢ Have your child born in another country
➢ Seek political asylum
Harry Browne’s book on this subject, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World, is well worth the investment.
Another option to gain financial freedom without changing citizenship is to live abroad, with your income and/or business in a third country. That way, you can live tax-free (unless you’re an American citizen) and be free of many other restrictions you would face at home.
For 41 years I lived in Hong Kong and then Manila. Thanks to Hong Kong’s minimal tax rates, neither I nor my company paid any tax. Ditto in Manila, thanks to my visa status.
Such are the lengths we must go to to find freedom in today’s unfree world.
4. “Sovereignal” freedom
Like pretty much every other word in the English language, “freedom” has multiple and sometimes contradictory meanings.
What’s termed “sovereignal” freedom is one example.
It means that a country is not being oppressed by another country.
On this definition of freedom, North Korea is free!
That North Koreans are being oppressed by other North Koreans is not relevant to “sovereignal” freedom.
Unfortunately, the use of this meaning is not confined to North Korea. Politicians make liberal use of this definition, though without the long words—especially when they aim to increase defence spending “to keep our country free.”
Finally, what I would argue is the most important aspect of freedom of all:
5. Psychological Freedom
➢ The desire to be free and independent
After all, everyone wants to be free, don’t they?
Well yes.
But—
For many if not most people there is something they want more than freedom.
Security.
So before we go into psychological freedom let’s consider its opposite. It’s easier to understand.
The desire for security and the inevitable, associated mental state of dependency is homo sapiens’ “default state.”
Think back to when you were born. I guess nobody actually remembers that far, but you do remember your early childhood.
When a human baby comes out of the womb, it is totally helpless. It is totally dependent. Homo sapiens is almost unique in the animal world. Almost every other species is capable of walking, seeing, and fending for itself from the moment it appears from the egg or the womb. The main exceptions are mammals, but even most mammals, especially our closest cousins, the apes, are off the payroll, so to speak, within a few weeks or months.
Indeed, a baby chimp, unlike the baby human, can grip its mother’s fur and hang on while its mother goes around her business. Plus the baby chimp has some degree of independence at birth.
By comparison, a human child often remains dependent on its parents until its early 20s. Indeed, some human beings never grow up to complete adulthood, by which I mean total self-sufficiency. Both mental and physical.
So our childhood conditions us to be dependent. And no matter how much you value freedom over security today, you still enjoy being looked after by somebody else.
What’s more, as a child you’re powerless. Mother and father are gods. And many parents use fear as a weapon of control. The result: far too many children grow up dependent and in fear of all authority figures.
The West’s “social security state” encourages dependency from cradle to grave. If you accept benefits from one of the many government welfare programs, you are inevitably discouraged from becoming self-sufficient, from seeking independence.
Equally important factors are school and college.
While you’re a student you’re dependent. Especially till you get out of high school.
And that period of dependence is getting longer. I only spent 10 years in primary and high school. Today the minimum is 12 years. And in some countries 13.
Reinforcing that youthful dependence are laws that make it illegal to work until you’re 16 or 18. Which effectively makes it illegal to become independent.
If those laws had been in force in the 1930s, people like Warren Buffett would probably be nobodies.
Why?
Buffett started his first business when he was 6 years old. By the time he was 19 and began to study under the legendary investor, Benjamin Graham, he’d spent 13 years learning about money, business and investment.
Let’s turn to the factors that encourage INdependence.
The most important ones are:
➢ your parents
➢ the economic environment, and
➢ the cultural environment—the dominant belief system
To put it another way: your home environment and your society’s environment. Or culture.
As a father I made it clear to my kids that by the time they get a university degree they’re off the payroll, out the door, and on their own.
But even with the best of intentions nothing is ever that clear cut. As a parent, and especially as a mother, it is difficult to say no to your kids. And the wealthier you are, the easier it is to give in to your children’s demands. If you’re poor, on the other hand, it is easy to say no. You don’t have the means to fulfill your children’s infinite desires.
Possibly this is why there are so many rich kids who finance political parties that support more welfare programs; and this may be why so many rich kids feel guilty about the wealth they have inherited as they did absolutely nothing to deserve it.
They’ve effectively grown up on welfare. Their parents’ welfare rather than the government’s. But the result is the same: psychological dependence.
The second factor is the world around you. Let me give you an example: