Freedom

Freedom. What is freedom? We hear it all the time in our country today, whether it is religious, sexual, financial, political, etc., we are all looking for some sort of freedom. But what even is freedom? What even defines that word? Because freedom for me or you can be very different from freedom to someone else. One may think that having the ability to practice certain basic human rights is a freedom. Or, one may think that being locked in a cell is freedom; surely an inmate who testified against dangerous people would see the safety of his or her cell as a liberating thing, freedom from harm. But allow me to explain my ideas of freedom, and let us see whom among you agree with me on this.

First and foremost, freedom is the ability to go wherever you want, do whatever you want, and be whoever you want to be...so long as you do not restrict the freedom of another person in the process. The ability to go to any country, see the world, love whomever you want, live the life that you truly want...all of that constitutes freedom in my eyes. Being able to go to the shores of Sicily or the mountains of Tibet and Nepal. Being able to take a plane across the country to see your family. Being allowed the choice of where in the world you want to live, being given the choice on who to vote for, being able to choose what you eat, being able to choose what religion you so desire. All of these things constitute freedom. So, why does a country founded on the principle of freedom deny its citizens, except the elite, these freedoms?

America was built on the notion of making men and women free. Freedom of self determination, freedom of religion, freedom of speech. This nation was built on freedom, so why do we sit here and accept the government hindering our freedoms. Because in order to truly live a free life, at least a free life as I described above, you need money. Money to accomplish whatever you want to do. Money to be free. True freedom is a costly endeavor, but the government could push us along in the pursuit of freedom if they wanted to. Make cuts to certain spending programs, increase taxes on those who have the ability to live a hundred freedom-filled lifetimes. The government could raise our standard of living so that we can be free. But it does not.

And at this point, I am not even just talking about freedom. Now I am shifting focus to the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. According to our own nation’s founders, we have the right to life. But what do we see happen to thousands upon thousands of homeless people each and every year. They die, miserable, devoid of life and any hope. And it is not just the homeless that suffer. Almost half of the population of the United States makes less than 30 K a year. And thirty thousand dollars a year may sound like a good salary if you are living in a cheap area of the country by yourself and have no one else to take care of. But for a family living in expensive areas, it is barely enough to survive on, let alone be free. What about those families and their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

And you can’t tell me that it is simply a lack of hard work that keeps those people in those situations, because I would say that working two jobs to take care of your children is the exact opposite of being lazy. And yet, they work so incredibly hard and they are still barely surviving. Why is that? Because not everyone can be rich. Not everyone is able to make insane amounts of money, or else no one would work. My proposed ideas are not in an attempt to steal from the rich and make the poor insanely wealthy. There is a limited amount of money to go around, and so not everyone can be rich. But what we can do is be decent human beings and help out those who work hard and still continue to struggle. Universal Basic Income, or UBI, is not something that will destroy us as a country; rather it will strengthen the economy.

Look at it this way. Let's say that a corporation, ermmmm, Amazon, for example, were to be taxed at a rate of twenty five percent. At the current revenue of the company (roughly 113 bln dollars) that would be an extra 28.25 bln dollars in revenue. JUST FROM AMAZON ALONE. And trust me, if you think that it is going to be hurting Amazon a great deal to be taxed so much, they are covered: they make 113 bln and their operating costs as of 2019 were roughly 26.5 bln dollars. That leaves billions of dollars a year for good old Bezos to live happily on. You see where I am coming from?

People who oppose my ideas tell me that Bezos worked hard for his money and company so he deserves to keep as much of it as possible. But there is not a single person on the planet who needs billions of dollars a year. If we were to tax all major corporations at this rate, as well as the wealthy elite, without allowing them tax breaks we would have trillions of dollars a year to spend on supporting the people of the nation; and I mean everyone of the nation. And that isn’t even counting how much more money we would have if we cut military spending (the military will be an article for another day).

Now, we have all this extra money right. So how is everyone affected. Well, first off, the people who desperately need it will be getting paychecks each month to help them ease themselves out of poverty and hardship. What happens when more people have more money to spend? Yes, that is right, it goes back into those same corporations. Also, with UBI, corporations will be able to make more money anyways because they will not have to pay their workers as much, since the UBI will be a hefty supplement to their working wages. Also, with all this new money in the government’s spending account, we won’t have to print so much of the green stuff, driving inflation down. And finally, with more money for the government to spend, the less that they will have to borrow, which means they can work on making a very small dent in their debt.

But none of these ideas for freedom can become a reality without your support. Spread the word to others, start petitions. If you care about the health of the nation on a whole, and care about every citizen then please, I urge you, take action to put these practices into place. I have contacted senators in my own state about changing their stances on things. But one voice and one person crying out cannot alone bring change. We must all band together to save the nation we live in, and to raise the standard of living for all Americans. Thank you for reading, please kindly share.