Essential Ways to Remain Free (part one)

This is not some phoney list of superstitious nonsense preaching at you to chop up your Tesco club card because "they" are watching, I find it very unlikely that the government is ever going to request a copy of your Tesco purchases, although I suppose it is a possibility. This list is, what I believe to be, essential criteria to meet before you can even begin to consider yourself a free individual.

 These are in no particular order, but I would argue that point one & two (coming soon) are by far the most essential before thinking about the others.

Firstly take control of your wealth, put it into a real valuable & tangible form.  This has been praying on my mind very heavily this week, my money only exists to me as digital numbers in a bank account, I cannot get my hands on it whenever I want, in fact it is legally property of the bank, so if they go bust I just become another creditor, probably at the bottom of the pile.  Being so disconnected from your wealth is a terrible and frightening reality for most of us, even without considering the worrying levels of rising inflation (in both the UK & the US) which is set to devalue any savings you or I may have (see my previous post). 

I would also like to point out that the government is in complete control of your money's real value (via the bank of England).  They have the power to increase supply as will, decreasing the value of the pound in your pocket (quantitative easing is the ultimate stealth tax).  How can you possibly be free if someone else controls how much your wealth is worth and therefore how your labour is valued compared to other goods/services?

Withdrawing your cash is a good start, although you then lose interest rates and put your wealth at an even higher risk of inflation in the long term, I would strongly suggest exchanging your savings for precious metals or other long term goods which will not depreciate and cannot be devalued by the state or anybody else.  1oz silver coins are (currently) affordable to everybody at only $38ish, are very tradable and easy to store, although always research current prices and trading costs before ordering; I'll probably post more on this soon.

If you can see and touch your wealth you can defend it and therefore most certainly own it, converting your labour into a valuable form is also essential to secure its worth.   As our wealth is our sole means of acquiring important goods from other people I would argue that this is the most basic criteria to ensure your own freedom.