I am about to go down a rabbit hole here, so I pray no one is becomes blinded by anger before reading to the end. I am old enough to realize that the more we learn, the more we realize how things are connected and sometimes how things which opposites, can reveal the truth about each other.
Bear with me please, I will be brief.
I recently read the book of stories on wealth creation called “The Richest Man in Babylon”. One of the stories is about a young man sold into slavery to settle a family debt. Slavery is a severe form of involuntary servitude. Examining this condition is useful for those who are free because it gives us insight into what freedoms and possible paths to success all free people actually possess.
Involuntary Servitude; is usually defined as serving without choice, and without compensation. The slave is a person sold for a price or sum of money. His or her only chance of freedom is to save enough to buy themselves from their owner. The problem is that since the slave owner owns them, they own all they produce. So no matter how hard the slave works he or she will never earn enough money to buy their freedom. In contrast to an actual slave, the poor person, working class or professional person is free, meaning no one owns them, they can choose what work they do and where, along with something very important; they earn money which is theirs and they can do with it what they choose. They can work overtime for extra money. They can work a second job. They can open a business on the side. They can even get a second job and have a business on the side. The possibilities for generating income which belongs to the slave are usually zero. The possibilities for generating a second or third income for a free person are almost endless.
Please pause and understand the monumental difference here.
Many people work at jobs they don’t like, at wages they think are less then their worth, and their financial situation allows them to pay their bills and after that they are broke. They feel that they will never get ahead and feel chained to their current financial situation. This is frequently referred to as debt slavery; meaning that the person was working just to pay their debts and their debts became to them, like a slave owner was to slaves, debt like the slave owner takes everything.
Let’s pause and state unequivocally that slavery was a horrible institution, which was dehumanizing both for the slave and the slave owner. I should also state that to people who are the descendants of slaves, or who live or know of modern slavery this comparison is an anathema; A horrible attempt to equivocate to very inequivalent things, which minimizes the horror of one of them” The clear historical record of assaults, rapes and murder of slaves is clearly documented in the financial records of slave owners.
However, getting back to the point of this post, two things which are very different can still reveal much about each other. In this case; a slave who works for food, shelter and clothing and who has no hope of every breaking free from the shackles of slavery because all choices are removed from them; where they work, what they do, and what they spend their money on because all their wages go to their owner. In contrast to this a free man or woman, chooses where they work, what they do, and what they spend their money on.
It is this contrast between these two opposites, which illustrate the great degree of freedom a free person has, and more importantly that a free person earns income, and that income can be invested wisely, so that in time the free person could achieve enough wealth to stop working forever. As stated above, a free person can not only earn money which is theirs, but they can do with it what they choose.
Nirvana; enlightening thought.
When you read the book called The Richest Man in Babylon you may feel like its full of good stories and actual techniques which clearly work. But many people state this book can’t help them because they don’t have any money to invest! When in truth, we all have money we can invest, if we chose to Pay Yourself First by choosing to pay ourselves first instead of spending money on StarBucks, eating out, new clothes, new cellphones or in rare instances debt reorganization and reducing the percentage of your income which goes towards debt payments to insure you have 10% to save.
First Step
This first step is the first one of a series of practical steps included in the book. But the main two points of this essay is that we are free persons, capable of making choices, and, if we make this choice, history says we will become financially independent. We are free, we have choices, we have opportunities, so choose.
Involuntary Servitude, Debt and finding enough capitol to invest.