[DavidDavidDavid]

coollikeme: I think there's confusion over what real freedom is. Everywhere the complaint is that we are not allowed to do as we please, but that's the least of what true freedom entails. The very valid points you raise in objection could easily be applied to investing as well. Ultimately, it's quite a question of semantics (of course, semanticists would say it's all *always* a question of semantics!), whether one thing is more risky or more like slavery than another.

I think the real slavery is not being able to make do where you are. Think about it. The real slavery is being tied to one's own fear -- and one's desires.

It's not about nine-to-five or being laid off as it is about one's fear. I was an Army infantryman and though I never saw combat I knew many who did. Yet they were still able to quite happily, if that's the word, make a career out of it...over twenty years, beyond retirement. Why is that?

You talk about nine-to-five...ever think about three-to-eight, as in three hundred hours to twenty hundred hours?

The richest man is the one who can happily live on a dollar a day. Seriously, that's the richest man of all, one who can be of his own accord (beyond the physical basics, naturally).

People who need this that and the other to be happy or satisfied...those are the truly impoverished. Would you rather be an amazing quadriplegic aerobatic airplane pilot, or an ordinary person with legs that can run and arms that can lift?

Likewise with money, and the job, and every aspect of life.

The person who can be happy with a nine-to-five is more a master of his or her own self than the person who needs financial independence in order to finally feel independent.

Would you make the devil's bargain and trade self-awareness and mastery for riches and leisure?

Remember, your soul isn't worth anything the moment you're willing to sell it!