darn right.

money buys outer freedom, often its real price is inner chains.

freedom to spend money, and freedom to get off the hamster wheel, are heady brews, but the real elixir of inner freedom cannot be bought with money, or rich people would be saints!

some get there despite their riches, but they are statistically invisible.

the word 'freedom' needs as much deconstruction as the word 'growth'.

too much of anything morphs into its opposite, oriental wisdom postulates...

growth is Good when it's getting some poor sod in africa a fridge and some vaccines, or putting in a rail system, or flat roads for bicycles, or microloans, but it's bad when it gets too big for its boots footprint....bhopal...BP....

freedom is Great when you can say and think what you want in a society and not have to pull 20 years in the work kamps for the privilege... not so much when it's the freedom to pillage, purvey lies-as-truth, pollute the aquis, load up future generations with nuclear waste and debt millstones.

it seems simple enough for a fairly bright 5 year old to comprehend, i wonder why grown adults in power positions have such a hard time grokking it?

we keep foolishly seeking absolution through absolutes, absolute freedom, absolute growth. this is about as useful as buttering limgams, and a lot less fun.

...absolution from having to take on board the job ahead of us, by incantating to shibboleths, moving air around to little end.

no easy answers to complex questions, unfortunately.

simple ones, yes... simple ain't easy. simplistic thinking is.

i remember reading about a suicide note which (simply) read:

'I couldn't simplify enough'

we even call mentally challenged people 'simple', to add insult to injury!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty