The Crucial Difference Between Freedom and Liberty

Andy Snyder|February 17, 2022

Note From Amanda: Readers loved Andy’s essay yesterday about why he works so hard on his farm… and we’re excited to tell you about a gathering we’ll be hosting at Joel’s hugely famous Polyface farm in September! We’ll share more details soon… but first, we’d love to get your name on our interest list. Email us and let us know what you’d like to see at a Manward event. Drop us a line at mailbag@manwardpress.com.

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Canadians just got a tough lesson on freedom… and what it means for their money.

Some fed-up truckers created quite a mess for the nation’s political class.

You know the story.

In a last-ditch effort to empty the streets and quiet the honking, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pulled a wild card out of his sleeve.

He used the nation’s Emergencies Act to clamp down on what hurts folks the most… money.

It’s why we fear the death of cash so darn much. With one move… one stroke of the mighty pen… everything can be locked up.

In this case, the prime minister didn’t just go after truckers’ bank accounts. He threatened to cut their insurance, take their trucks… and even lock up their crypto.

“A lot of grown men were crying,” said one protestor who fired up his truck and headed home. “We didn’t think he was going to enact that. We could lose everything.”

Indeed, an electronic economy sure is handy… but as we wrote yesterday, what comes easy goes easy.

The crypto crowd, of course, is fighting back. This is the sort of thing the digital form of money was designed to thwart.

The CEO of Coinbase, who has suddenly been forced to follow all sorts of new measures to deal with the order, told the protestors to go around the mandate. Use a self-custodial wallet, he said. There’s no central middleman for the government to target.

Indeed, moves like this will only strengthen the market’s yearning for an independent system.

As we’ve said before… at first, these sorts of laws were meant to keep foreign governments at bay. Then they were used to deter bad guys from selling drugs. Now they’re being used to target truckers with loud horns who refuse to get a shot.

What’s next… no money for the fella who reads the wrong books or interviews the wrong doctors?

The Meaning of Things

With so much talk about liberty and freedom (much of it pitched in a negative tone by the headline writers), it’s a good time for us to blow the dust off an idea we’ve written about several times.

What’s the difference between liberty and freedom? Or are they the same thing?

To some, there is no difference. But to the folks who ponder such things, understanding each idea is vital.

We’ll show you…

Freedom is a word of German origin that simply means the ability to make decisions or perform actions independent of external entities.

You’re free to walk from one side of your property to the other.

But liberty, with its French roots, means freedom that has been granted by some sort of external entity, typically a society or government.

You have the liberty to walk across your neighbor’s property only if he’ll allow it.

Boiled down… freedom is something we are born with. Liberty is something we must fight for.

That’s a critical idea. Liberty must be granted by an external force.

Here’s where it’s vital to know the slight but powerful nuances of each word…

America’s Founding Fathers believed freedom was a God-given right. We all know that. But few folks know that they left it up to the government to grant its citizens the liberties needed to exercise that right.

All we have to do is look around to realize they got it wrong.

Liberty relies on some sort of external force. But no government will ever grant true liberty. To think one would is preposterous.

In fact, the tougher its job gets – the deeper the holes it digs – the more liberties a government looks to take away.

Wealth, of course, is a big, fat target.

Nothing has liberated more people than wealth.

Locked Up

By the very nature of our being, we all have the freedom to travel where we want and to do what we want. But we don’t always have the liberty. And it’s not just our governments holding us back.

Our wealth plays a huge role in our liberty.

Canadian truckers just learned that lesson.

They’ve got the freedom to go where they want and to do as they please. But their government has failed to grant them the liberty. They need licenses. They need insurance. And they need highly taxed fuel… and the carbon credits that go into it.

And here’s where things get dicey. It’s why we’re so concerned about the direction things are headed.

Because of the liberty granted to them by their money, wealthy truckers were able to exercise the most freedom. They didn’t have to go home just so they could keep their jobs. When you have enough money, a job doesn’t matter.

But wealth is useless if you can’t access it.

That’s the rub of it all.

It’s why the death of cash and everything that surrounds the topic (crypto, gold, etc.) are so very important to understand.

The folks who have the ability to exercise the most freedom in Canada are the ones with cash in their pockets and easy access to a whole lot more of it.

But there aren’t many folks like that. Our societies and their keepers have made sure of that.

It’s not good.

But it is a good lesson.

We all want to exercise our freedom. But we first must make sure we have the liberty to do so.

Make the right choices.

They matter.

Note: Americans could face the same threat… thanks to a meeting scheduled for March 16 in Washington. That’s when our government could make a critical decision about the fate of your money. Click here for all the details on how to prepare for it.