Individual Economic Freedom

If you depend on someone else to provide your needs and wants, you are economically dependent and enslaved; this is the state of a child. If through your own initiative you provide for yourself, you are economically independent and free; this is the state of an adult. Most governments believe that its citizens should be children.

For many decades since its inception, the United States of America has been a bastion of individual economic freedom by both promoting the value of independence, while at the same time protecting ingenuity, which unique combination ignites the human spirit to take risk for the possibility of reward. The risk is the sacrifice of time and sometimes money, and the reward is realizing various levels of economic freedom.

See.... THE 7 LEVELS OF ECONOMIC REALITY

The common misconception regarding these levels is the belief that an individual should hope and try to skip levels. Two examples expose this fallacy. Consider the lottery winner who is financially dependent: The sudden introduction of wealth without the refining process of learning the principles that lead to economic independence, results in the “lucky” winner seeing the money go up in smoke before they return to financial dependence. The second example is subtlety deceiving: The spoiled heir of a fortune, who has never earned any of the wealth, remains entirely dependent on others to provide the “freedom” because they are not capable of maintaining or growing it themselves.

An individual cannot be economically independent and free unless they have provided for themselves; otherwise, they are still dependent.