Commercials and the media promote the idea that we are happiest when we have the trappings of wealth. Then we can do whatever we want. We have freedom.
Observations show otherwise. Beyond having enough income to cover food, shelter, and healthcare, wealthy folks don't feel happier or more free.
Remember Richard Cory? He was richer than a king. And yet one calm summer night, he went home and put a bullet through his head. The poet doesn't tell us why. Maybe no one needed him. Maybe he felt no purpose to his life.
Most of us find freedom in service. Taking care of our children. Working at a career we find fulfilling. Undertaking responsibilities. These things don't limit our freedom—they fill it with purpose and meaning.
Many people, faced with empty hours and "nothing to do," complain not of too much freedom but of boredom.
America has many leaders. The shallow ones call us the land of the free. But for tens of millions who work multiple jobs and still live in poverty, the only freedom is the freedom to choose between grinding toil and abandoning their responsibilities to loved ones. To call that “freedom” is a cruel joke.
Those of us with enough resources to enjoy real freedom face a choice. We can chase the empty promise that more stuff equals more happiness. Rather than Richard Cory’s path, we can emulate Henry J. Kaiser, the industrialist who founded Kaiser Permanente Health Care. His motto was, “Find a need and fill it.”