I'm going to start out here by assuming that you're not living somewhere under a huge rock and you are aware of at least some of what has been going on in the world.

So, let me ask you a question: What do you think is the single most important thing that everyone wants?

I'll give you the answer and it's not what you think: believe it or not, it's freedom.

Now, I don't care what your ideological positions are or how you personally define freedom—In other words, I don't care if you're looking for the Freedom TO DO something or Freedom FROM something—the plain fact is that everyone wants freedom.

Think about it. At the base of every specific want is the underlying concept that is freedom. Whether it's the freedom to go where you want, to do what you want, to say what you want, or be what you want. Maybe it's just the freedom to be left alone, it doesn't matter, because underlying every one of them is, necessarily, FREEDOM.

Freedom is comprised of three primary things: Mobility, Opportunity, and Risk responsibility.

Mobility is a lack of restraint. It's your ability to move from here to there, to go from where you are now, physically, economically, or ideologically, to where you want to be without being held back by someone or something.

Opportunity is the the chance for improvement—not the guarantee of improvement, the chance for improvement.

A lot of people think that "equality of outcome" is freedom but, in reality, it's exactly the opposite.

Look, if you're good at something, whether it's a sport, cooking, a science, painting, or designing, as soon as you're better at something than someone else, equality of outcome immediately chains you down to being only as good as the person who is the worst at something.

And chains and freedom don't mix real well, so NO, that's not freedom.

The third aspect of freedom is risk responsibility; the responsibility to take a risk and to accept the results, good or bad.

Now, risk seems scary, we don't like risk, but risk is vital to achieving anything. If you want to go to the food store, you have to risk getting out there on the road with all those people who have no idea how to drive. If you're an actor or a singer, or worse still, a comedian, you have to risk getting out there—on a stage— and doing your thing.

The same thing goes for a writer, for a content creator, a scientist, an innovator, or a manufacturer.

And if you've got a really good idea, you have to risk your time and your money in order to get it off the ground. Sitting there won't make or sell your idea.

Risk is vital.

Look, we've seen what the removal of risk does: what happened in 2007, 2008? The government came in and removed the risks for the banks. Gone. They said, go ahead, we'll cover you, make loans to people who quite obviously have no ability to pay them back.

And what happened? With nothing what-so-ever to lose, they all said "hold my beer" and made some epically stupid decisions that we are and will be paying for, for generations to come.

That's what you get without risk and it's not freedom, is it?

So, in order for you to have freedom you have to have Mobility, you have to have Opportunity, and you have to be willing and able to take on risk and accept the outcome.

It's a very simple equation—it's not as simple to pull off, but it's a simple equation.

But the great thing is this: none of these three things come from anyone. Nobody gives you mobility, they can only take it away from you. No one gives you opportunity, It's there and you take it or you don't.

And risk? Risk is exactly the same—you take the risk, you don't take the risk, it's up to you. I like to ski, my skill at the sport makes it a risk that I'm willing to take. Skydiving on the other hand is out of my league—that's a risk I won't take because I simply don't see enough payoff.

Now, there's another aspect to mobility that I haven't talked about yet and that's the mobility to move when things get bad. And there is a lot of Bad going on right now.

The lockdowns decimated the economy and many state and local governments have taken dystopian measures over your life.

The police in many areas are telling you that they're not coming—you're on your own while, at the same time, people are being charged with crimes for trying to go to work or for protecting their families and their property.

The cities are becoming wastelands - people are moving out in droves. Did you know that Yelp made a recent post stating that over 40% of it's restaurants.—that's all over the US, are closed FOR GOOD?

Yeah, virtually every restaurant in the country is on yelp and 40% of them are gone, closed, forever. Do you have any idea how many jobs that is?

There's talk about a mandatory vaccine for a virus that, even the provably skewed numbers show is nothing near as devastating as the myriad other viruses that we completely ignored in the past.

We couldn't see our friends, we couldn't see our family, people cross the street to avoid you. You can't even have a conversation anymore and get any kind of feedback because everyone looks like a highwayman.

We've been completely dehumanised.

Kids, especially the younger ones, are virtually immune and yet the schools are being closed. There have been exactly ZERO instances where a teacher got Covid from a student, worldwide.

All of the information pushed out by the media follows a single line and anything even slightly beyond that is censored and removed. People are losing their jobs and being physically attacked simply for having a different opinion or asking questions.

Businesses are being destroyed unless they bow to the mob.

There's so much more; that doesn't even touch on what's going on internationally.

So when the wheels come off this bus—and make no mistake about it, the wheels are coming off this bus—what do you think the elites are going to do?

Do you think they are going to sit here and allow the government to tax them at 104%? Of course not. They say that they're all for it but look at what they do, not what they say.

No, they are going to pack up their stuff and they are going to move (and they are going to bring their irrational voting habits with them!)

Mobility.

When everything starts to fall apart, they have the mobility and opportunity to get out from under, at very low risk.

Do you? Probably not—but you should—that's a major component in freedom.

Mobility, opportunity, and risk are a balance. Freedom, like everything else in the universe, adheres to the laws of physics (specifically the law of conservation of energy). If you need to gain mobility, you have to take advantage of your opportunity by spending some risk.

If you are risk adverse, you spend some mobility and opportunity to gain security.

If you lack opportunity, you'll have to spend some mobility by moving to where the opportunity is.

It's a balance. The phrase "Nothing is free" rings true always. There are no times where it doesn't and I challenge you to find any, ANY, example where you observed something being "free" that had zero cost.

You won't find one because "free" does not adhere to the laws that govern the universe. Period. And the word freedom, though it contains the word free, does.

Period.