why we are not free

The real damage is done by those millions who want to 'survive.' The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.

9 here. Wow, I thought this thread died since no one replied for days after me.

Since this thread takes a direction towards the subject of wealth and riches, I'll put in my two cents.

Just like the concept of freedom has been corrupted over the past decades, so has the concept of wealth. People now days have taken to the view the that been rich by and of itself is evil and should have their wealth allocated through socialism..etc.

The truth is, and this is what eludes a lot of people, the important factor in determining whether a person's rich is legit is not how rich he is, it's HOW he got rich.

Fundamentally wealth can only be gotten through two ways: You either get rich legitimately by producing wealth (labor, business, trade..etc.), or you take wealth by force from others who produced them. I don't think I have to elaborate here which is good and which is evil.

The fact of the matter is, because it's not a pure free market out there, there are illegitimate corporate monopolies and big businesses who got rich not because of legit skill in their trade to compete, but because they get to go in bed with a government that gets to manipulate the economy though socialist policies that can be lobbied to favor these said corporate and businesses (bailouts, market regulations..etc.).

People who got suckered in by today's popular politics and doesn't know the intricacy herein gets so bottled up on the face value of been rich such as a company's earnings or a CEO's salary and whatnot that they call for socialism. And when more socialist policies gets injected into the economy by an already big government, and more illegitimate corporate monopolies and big businesses rises, these same people ignorant of what they are doing calls for more.

What matters isn't the figure behind the $ sign, what matters is how that figure is gotten. When politic policies judges based on the $ instead of the "How", that's when bad things we have today or worse happens.

(ie pressed report by misclick, false alert to any mod peeking here)