The difference between liberty and freedom is that liberty is a political concept, while freedom is largely related to economy. Liberty is the absence of government meddling. Freedom is our ability to act as we please. Liberty gives us a wider range of ways to make a living than is the case under tyranny. It enables us to employ our capital and skills as we please. However, this is of little value to those who depend on government subsidies for a living. They are more likely to find freedom by gaming the system than trying to make an honest living, at least in the short to medium term.
This is why people at both ends of the economic spectrum welcome all sorts of tyrannies. The super rich know deep down that their privileges are due to government regulations and subsidies that give them advantages at the expense of the middle class. They may profess to be in their privileged position due to superior skills and insights, but this is a delusion that they nurture in order to defend their wealth.
The indolent and incompetent are similarly dependent on government. This is not the fault of their own, they claim. Rather, it's due to some inherent unfairness in the system. It's not their fault that they need help. It's the fault of the system, and government must therefore come to their rescue. Wrongs must be righted. Resources must be procured from the middle class.
The super rich and the indolent poor find each other in this way. They share a love of government and a distaste of honest work. Tyranny is to them freedom. It enables them to do more than they otherwise could achieve, at least in the short term. But this arrangement depends entirely on the middle class, and is therefore unstable. It produces changes that eviscerate the middle class over time. The top end finds its way into the super rich category through successful petitioning for subsidies and regulations of their industries. The lower end, burdened by taxes and regulations, gets dragged down into poverty. There's also a portion that finds its way into the parallel economy, largely out of reach from the state.
The tax base gets in this way eroded. Privileges can no longer be financed through taxation alone. Credit and money printing makes up for the shortfalls. Increasingly, the state relies on money printing rather than taxation. Eventually we end up where we are now with a push for full on tyranny. People are stuck at home, their mandated indolence financed by unlimited money printing. But there can be no sustained consumption without production. We can't all sit at home doing nothing. This cannot work. It must collapse, or radically transform into something that does work.
My wife and I saw this coming some ten years ago when we decided to move together and form a family. We didn't have a perfectly clear vision of the future, but we were very much aware of the corruption in the system. The competent were burdened with massive work loads at the office, and excessive taxation at home. I was no better off than many unemployed people, and my wife was in a similar situation, only barely able to pay her bills despite her long hours at work.
We soon realized that many of our bills could be reduced substantially by a rearrangement of our affairs. Moving from Norway to Portugal was in itself a big money saver. Selling my house in Norway released capital, and reduced to zero the taxes and bills associated with home ownership. I could suddenly live off of my capital income. In an odd way, I entered the sphere of the super-rich. My shares in a heavily subsidized industry allowed me to retire. My wife could at the same time reduce her hours at work. When we got a baby boy, my wife quit work. But she kept in contact with her colleagues. She did little things for her former boss from home while exploring other interests and enjoying her motherhood to the fullest. All of this, we managed to do without going into debt.
Ten years on, and we're still balancing our budgets. Our modest but comfortable lifestyle is fully sustained by cash flow. We're living within our means, and this is in the end all that's required in order to achieve maximum freedom.
A consequence of this transformation from tax donkeys to sovereigns is that we've both produced for ourselves a capital base of sorts. I've invested time in what I find interesting. The result has been a theory of physics that is currently gaining some interest. I've also developed a fairly clear vision of how capital can be invested for maximum gain and minimum risk. The world has become a less confusing place. I'm able to navigate it to my advantage.
My wife has on her side established herself as a reliable resource for her old boss. She has also become something of an expert on handicraft and machine-knitting. This has again been translated into two modest but steady streams of income. She has more control over her time, and this puts her in a position of control. She's increasingly influential in her sphere of things, and our finances are further secured. But it took us ten years to get here. It didn't happen over night.
A trap that many fall into when trying to do what my wife and I have done, is to be overly optimistic about what can be achieved. Combined with a reluctance to cut down on expenses by selling properties and scaling down consumption, many end up borrowing money to finance what they expect to be a short transition period. When the transition turns out to take longer than expected, people get financially squeezed and forced back into the corporate structure they tried to escape. I was close to falling into this trap myself, so I know from experience how easy it is to fool oneself into thinking that all is well. Had I not sold my house in time, I would have been forced to do so, and the difference in outcome would have forced me to abandon my newfound freedoms. However, with that hurdle safely passed, we can now celebrate ten years of freedom with the realistic expectation to remain in this position for the rest of our lives.
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| Dawn |
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