[Text] Man is free the moment he wishes to be. - Voltaire

I would take it one step further and say that freedom is just knowing that you can give up things if needed. You don't have to actually give it all up. choosing to be tied down to to things like a mortgage and car payment is still freedom if that is what you chose and you are willing to take the hit that it would take to get out of it.

For example, lets say a woman meets a rich man. They date for some time and while the woman keeps her job, the man gives her basically everything she wants because he is so rich it doesn't even matter to him. He buys her a million dollar house so she can move out of her apartment. he buys her a Porsche so she sells her worn out old Toyota. All of her bills are automatically paid including all of her credit cards. There is nothing she wants that she can't get without giving it a second thought.

Now lets say the relationship starts to turn south. Some would say she isn't free because she has to put up with him to keep what she has, but I would argue that she is still free. She is free to choose to leave behind all of this luxury if the cost isn't worth it, but she is also free to choose to put up with quite a bit if she really values that lifestyle. Plenty of workers put up with jerk bosses because they enjoy the lifestyle their salary affords them. Freedom isn't about not answering to anyone and appearing free from an outsider's perspective. Freedom is about being free to choose what you want regardless of what it looks like from the outside.

Some prostitutes would argue they are free because they can choose their clients and they can make more money in an hour than friends of theirs make in a whole day, but others would argue that as long as they are a prostitute they will never really be free. I would say except in rare cases of depression, mental illness or a Stockholm syndrome type case, freedom can only be truly judged in first person.

/r/GetMotivated Thread Parent