Freedom
is the very essence of this site. The greatest men in the world were
regarded as such because they lead people to freedom. Millions of
people have died defending it. Do we need freedom today? You bet
we do. We want to examine some of the ways that people are kept in bondage
and present some practical solutions for solving these problems.
All people are different, and so, are all endowed
with a variety of different talents and abilities. Let's look at this
from a production standpoint. Due to our differences, we collectively
produce a great variety of things. One person may be able to produce
certain goods of excellent quality, but may have extreme difficulty in
fulfilling his other needs. (Suppose he makes wonderful shirts, but is
not a skilled maker of shoes.) This individual will have to trade in
order to get the things that he wants or needs.
At present, millions of people work for pennies a
day, largely because they don't have the ability to communicate at a
distance. They make the goods, but are unable to trade them due to
this lack of communication. If we can give them this ability, we will
accomplish a great victory for the cause of freedom. We will
successfully eliminate the middlemen who are sapping their profit and taking
from them the means of earning a livelihood.
Let's look at another example. In the United
States, there are construction workers who are highly skilled, require no
supervision, and work for a small fraction of what their 'supervisor' makes.
They earn so little that they could never save the $5000 that is needed to
obtain a contractor’s license. Additionally, they must take examinations in
areas for which they have no aptitude; areas that are not relevant to their
duties. This is a terrible injustice that must be corrected.
Many people, out of fear and greed, feel a need to
control other people. Often, parents control their children in an
inappropriate way, which results in emotional damage to the child.
People with a strong need to control others are frequently drawn into
management, politics, law, or medicine. The control motive interferes
with compassion and judgment, and has a very damaging effect on our society.
Perhaps the biggest threat to freedom in the United
States is the educational system. Students are coerced into taking
courses. They are told by people who they trust and respect that the
information taught in these classes will be necessary for their future
success. Years later, they will learn that many of the subjects they
studied were a waste of time. The student learns that the only way to
survive is to 'play the game'. In choosing this path, he relinquishes
his fundamental values, and adopts an inefficient and distorted system as a
way of life.
