How many people in this country are truly free?

The teabaggers love to talk about freedom and RW pundits say we are the greatest and most free country on earth, but I disagree. The poor who are living on the streets are not free, the workers who's rights have to collective bargaining have been taken away are not free, the 45,000 who die every year from not having healthcare are not free. The only ones who are truly free are the Koch brothers and their ilk. The rest of us are given the illusion of freedom. As FDR said "We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."

worth asking. I thought of the 'America is the best nation ever!' just today.

I think there are 3 basic groups;
1) Rich, powerful, famous
3) Would be happy if they were a dog on a chain, no matter what
3) Never been out of the country

I wouldn't call that free.

The average person walking down the street and gets attacked is in trouble if no one is around to help him, whereas the rich have their body guards. So yes the rich are free, much more free than anyone else in this country. I'm not sure what you even getting at with this post.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_number_of_billionaires

The US has more than 1/3 of the world's billionaires (412 of 1210). This is more than any other country, 3.6 times as many as the #2 ranked country (China), and more than the combined totals of the 2nd - 7th ranked countries.

Clearly, the US is on the verge of economic collapse, and we need to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Public Employee Pension Plans in order to save the future for our grandkids....

I would consider Millionaires pretty free as well. See I just raised the number by 2,886,200 according to Wikipedia.

to be rich in America...

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/life/offbeat/2011/03/17/294939/US$7-million.htm

1) It is against the law to pee outside in public, humans are the only mammals not allowed to do so.
2) It is against the law to be naked in public in 99.999% of America.
3) You can't legally drive a car without wearing a seat belt.
4) Smoking a cigarette in public is a huge no no. If you don't end up with a ticket, then you will most likely at least be sneered at.
5) It is illegal to end your life by suicide.

No one is completely free.

(of nicotine, THC, whatever) does bring back schoolday memories of all the, um, 'interesting' people (eg. disobedient 'girls') one once got to know there.

Smokers tend to be nicely ironic and friendly people.

:evilgrin:

etc and so on?

in order to sustain yourself, you usually kiss any notion of democracy and freedom goodbye. You do what you are told and do it when it is demanded and exactly how it should be done, or you are out of there and left to choose another business tyrant who will exchange a small portion of their profits in the form of Faith Based tickets so that you can use them to survive.

That is not freedom at all, but dances under the banner of said in order to assure that the workers imagine themselves to be free. What it actually is, considering the very low wages and crappy benefits and skimpy vacation and personal time offered, is a better form of slavery. You see, the owners don't have to house you, feed you or clothe you. They pay you just enough, for the larger portions of us, to do that for yourself while they work you to the bone and to the grave in your effort to assure them huge profits that give them lives of privilege and luxury. They give you candidates so you can vote and imagine some form of influence and power while your real life tells you that it is all wrong and you then become angry and unstable. Well, powerful, psychotropic pharmaceuticals are now there for you and your children to keep you on track, complacent and able to see the dream they weave to keep you totally in line with the program. Plus, you then don't go postal or revolt in most cases, so the deal is assured and you continue to play as you were trained since childhood to do.

The neat part is that, for big businesses like multinational corporations, all aspects of the debacle are profitable. They make money from the day your are born, all the way through your life and until the day you die. If they make you sick from crappy food and contaminants, they have investments in the health care industries and insurance, etc. Every step of the way, there is a profit to be made. Your misery and despair and lack of power and wealth always lead to a plethora of fixes that you can pay the money they pay you for a large part of your life, (five days to them, two for you, unless you are salaried and then they get more for the same price) right back to them. It is a sweet deal and you don't have to live on the plantation anymore to participate.

I really think that to succeed in that environment you have to be a sociopath and not give a damn about anyone else in the world.

= We are free from having to be morally responsible for our fellow human beings or the environment.

Democratic/Progressive definition = Freedom from suffering and equality of opportunity

are not free either. They are prisoners of their own arrogance and avarice.

Betcha a strawberry smoothie, a lot of us are way more content and "free" than these guys.

All that manipulation, strateeegerizin can wear billionaires out.

"...while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." April 19, 1919

Think about how free you are if government can simply wipe out habeas corpus, suspend the fourth amendment, eviscerate the first, sixth, seventh and eighth and call the whole mess the USA Patriot Act.


wp

to vomit! He praised the Tea Party, defended the "Birthers" & basically bragged about how rich he was & he would spend 600 MILLION of his own money, blah blah blah!

Oh yeah, he also said the Newt had just joined one of his clubs or something like that I stopped watching!

And the entire interview took place on his private 727!