Is freedom just another word for 'nothing left to lose'?

True freedom exists only in death.

It depends on your POV.

Oh man. It depends on the context, really. I’d say in Me and Bobby McGee it does mean just that. You don’t have anything (except a harpoon, a red bandana and a thumb) so you don’t have anything to lose.

Freedom means that every one thinks your useless.—Scott Adams.

That’s an odd perspective.

@Dutchess_III It’s the title of a Dilbert book.

I sometimes feel that wsy when people tell me how wonderful my freedom is now that my kids live far away and my husband has left.

Oh man, @janbb. That’s a pretty thoughtless, callous thing to say.

I didn’t mean that they say the whole thing, just about how much freedom I have now but yeah. Thanks.

Land of the free? Name one thing that isn’t taxed, regulated or illegal to do?

Sex

Sex ain’t free, there is always a catch.

Just the opposite actually. Having freedom means you have everything to lose. Being a slave means you have nothing to lose.

Let us hope that we don’t see it happen this year.

There is often no catch.
I have seen lots of,
“Wanna?”
“K”.

That’s one of those little 60’s style slogans that people like my mom and her sisters would recite as if they have some meaning when in fact they were sort of meaningless.

A couple of others that I would occasionally hear-

“Be here now”
“If the truth can be understood, it will be believed.”
“You’re either part of the solution or you are part of the problem”

@josie – I remember them all. “Be here now” was one of the more inane, vapid ones.

^^^And there was always “No matter where you go, there you are”.

Freedom can always be questioned. Always. Yes we’re taxed but that doesn’t mean we’re not free. We’re free to move to someplace that doesn’t tax (if there is such a place.)
We’re free to move to some place that isn’t regulated.

However, I don’t think I’d want to move to a place that is neither taxed nor regulated. I can’t imagine the conditions.

Even other species have their own set of taxes and regulations.

Kind of like ^^ the freedom to leave your low paying job for a non-existent other one or the freedom to die if you cannot afford food, medication, shelter, clothing?

^^^^ Freedom to make your own choices, yes. Not having insurance or much money is a shame (I’ve been there,) but so are a lot of things. I don’t think that has any thing to do with freedom.

Freedom is self-defined. For me freedom would be freedom from everything, all stress, all jobs, all decisions, all responsibility- and in that case, I would have nothing to lose except my life or my happiness. Sometimes it sounds great, other times it sounds like the most boring existence I can imagine.

“It’s self-defined.” Very good point @KNOWITALL.