Thomas Jefferson said it was about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The National Rifle Association says it's about the right to own guns. Kris Kristofferson said it was just another word for nothing left to lose.
What exactly does freedom mean to us in this 16th year of the 21st century, this sixth year in the decade known as the 'teens?
In the early days of our country it meant the right to worship however we wanted, the right to speak against the government, the right to print the truth no matter where it took us. It also meant the right to pull up stakes, head for the frontier and get a fresh start somewhere new.
Certainly freedom meant no one telling us where we had to live ... or work ... or worship.
Those are important things. But I wonder how free someone is if he has $20,000 worth of credit card debt, if he's upside down in his mortgage and he can't change jobs because he's scared to death of losing the meager health insurance he has. I wonder how much freedom of speech means to him.
I wonder how free someone is if she is ignorant of what's going on in the world, if she hasn't read a book since high school and she gets all her knowledge of the world from a talk-radio host someone told her she ought to like. I wonder how much freedom of the press means to her.
Don't get me wrong. Our constitutional freedoms are wonderful things, even if many of us never exercise them other than to say, "Rush is right. Obama is an idiot."
How many people do you know who are locked into lives they hate because they literally owe their soul to the company store? How many people do you know who bit off more than they can chew financially and have no hope of ever getting out from under?
How many people do you know who have every toy or gadget you could imagine -- but hate their lives? How many people do you know who really hold fast to a traditional American belief -- that their children will have better lives than they do?
We live in a country in which the middle class has been all but destroyed, where they only real difference anymore is between the ruling class and the working class.
If you're the one who writes the paychecks, you're fine. If you're the one who gets a paycheck -- unless you're a millionaire entertainer or athlete -- you're on the bottom looking up.
Even if you want to follow your American Dream and start your own business, you're pretty well screwed right now if you need to borrow money.
So freedom. Once again, what is it and how can you be free as we head into the dismal years?
For one thing, it's really all about money. If you owe people money, you're not free. You have to stay in a town that you hate, working for people you hate or else you'll default on what you owe.
You want to change that?
Cut up your credit cards. Close down your credit lines. Then do everything you can do get those balances down to zero as quickly as possible. If that means eating Top Ramen and ground beef instead of lobster and steak, do it. It may be the hardest thing you will ever do, but you will never regret it.
Once your debts are paid off, you can live a little better, but you still ought to be saving as much money as you can for as long as you can.
There is a storm coming that will make 2007-08 look like good times, and no one knows how far off it is.
Think about this. In 2005, the median home price in California was $550,000. By late 2009, it had fallen to $250,000. That's hell for people who own houses, but it's damned good news for people who had been saving their money to buy houses.In a time of recession or depression, having cash makes you -- if not king -- at least a minor member of the royal family.
Sorry to sound so crass here, but we have created a world where freedom is all about money and slavery is all about debt.
You want to get free? You want to be strong? Pay your debts, then opt out of the consumer society. Hunker down and wait. You won't be sorry.
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