My Definition of Freedom

Some people think of freedom in very political terms, such as the freedoms granted by the Bill of Rights - freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, freedom of religion, freedom to criticize the government, etc. By these measures, China is not a very "free" country. However, I believe freedom is more than just those political freedoms; in fact, many freedoms come with wealth and improved standards of living. For example, while the rich and the middle class can wake up everyday and have the freedom to choose between the blue outfit or the green outfit, the very poor may only have a single outfit to choose from. People in China now have many more freedoms, mainly due to their increased wealth, and thus have so many more choices in everyday lives. These freedoms, because they are encountered everyday, are perhaps much more missed than the political freedoms that, while generally important, may not be to most individuals during most of their lives. After all, would you care more if someone restricted your right to badmouth the government in the local newspaper, or if they limited your right to food choices for lunch to be between rice porridge or millet gruel?

"Freedom" in this sense is one of the things we we seek (the others probably are security and influence) when we seek wealth - we like to have more options. Richer people, in this sense, have more "freedoms." If a plane is sold out and they needed to get somewhere, perhaps they have an extra option to hop on a private jet. If there are limited quantities of a certain item, and high demand along with low supply pushes the price upwards, rich people still have the "freedom" to afford to pay $10,000 for a formerly $10 item. And financially independent people have the freedom to escape the working world if they desire.

However, that last item is not totally dependent on wealth. You see, there are freedoms even beyond those that come with wealth, and many of them come from having the time to simply seek them out. These freedoms are some of life's most priceless gifts, and it includes the freedom to simply go where you want to (which is true as long as you can walk or have some sort of self-propelling mechanism), to see what you want to see (as long as your eyesight and the sights are still there), and to be who you want to be (just a matter of committing to the kind of character you want to have over time). Perhaps it is because of this, I have never felt more free in my life, despite living in a "not-so-free" country.

I am not financially independent as per the definition that "my passive income flow outweigh my expenses," however, I am financially independent in that my savings can cover my living expenses for the next few years if I continue traveling and consuming at my current pace. I got this way because I chose to maximize my freedoms during my years working (i.e. save money - when you spend money, you start to lose freedoms since you start to lose the ability to make certain choices), but not to make my entire life all about work. After all, time is like money (while working, I often pay money to save time, now I pay time to save money), and as mentioned before, it grants you freedoms as well. At some point, what you give up in time to make money results in negative returns in freedom (i.e. freedoms lost due to lost time outweigh freedoms gained from the incremental extra wealth). While money is especially important in the freedom equation when you don't have any, its importance declines in value once you have some of it, as the majority of wealth-enabled freedoms can be enjoyed at relatively low income levels (This is just a conjecture, but I'm guessing that the median price of all unique goods and services in the market is not that high).

So in conclusion, if you truly emphasize freedom in your life, you need not worry about the rat race working life, for as long as you work hard, learn to live in a frugal, non-materialistic lifestyle, and learn to enjoy the freedoms that come with having extra time and a modest level of income, you will not be lacking. After all, wasn't it back at the turn of the 20th century when people predicted that with the advent of modernization and automation, people's working times will dramatically decrease, providing even more leisure time to the average man?

It's a beautiful day here in Shanghai.