What Does Freedom Mean In a Capitalist Society?

In a capitalist society, what does it mean for a person to be free? Does it mean the ability to make one’s own choices? The chance to rise to the top? The chance to experience a life of no limits other than the ones placed on oneself? Before answering that, let’s consider a hypothetical slave society. In this society, freedom, to a salve, means to own one’s own life. Freedom, to the master, means the freedom to not be a slave, to instead own slaves who will make his money for him and do his hard labor. In this slave society, freedom does not exist without the notation of slavery. The members define freedom in terms of what it is not. In this case, it is not slavery.

Similarly, in a feudalistic society, freedom would mean the freedom to own land and be protected without having to pay high taxes/rent on the things one produces. In a socialist society, freedom from society would mean to be able to own however much one wished, to be able to increase one's income by increasing one's efforts. In an egalitarian society, freedom is sort of tricky to define. It might mean the ability to survive on one's own, though that would be rather difficult and probably not preferential to its members. Or perhaps it is the chance to accumulate wealth and rise above others, which is also difficult to do in a hunter-gatherer society.

So I argue, in every society there is a force which acts to the benefit of some and the detriment of others. Whatever that force is, freedom is defined as having power or victory over that force. (In most cases, victory is won at birth by virtue of being born into a certain family, in a certain place, at a certain time.) In this way, freedom is very simple to define and understand. And it is a straightforward matter to determine whether one is free or not.

So what is freedom to members of a capitalist society? Well, what does capitalism stand for? What are its characteristics? It stands for and promotes equality, yes, equality in the chances one is accorded to rise to the top. So capitalism doesn't push people around but instead let's people push each other around until everyone finds a place, some ending up in places more desirable than others. But what each person in such a society has in common is the drive to reach the top. Everyone knows it is far better to be rich than poor, so (almost) everyone seeks to be as wealthy as possible. Capitalism ingrains in its population the desire to have more, be more, do more. Nothing is ever good enough. Everything must constantly be improved.


Let me ask again. What does freedom mean in a capitalist society? I say: Freedom from materialism. Freedom from that seemingly innate drive for more, and bigger, and better. The people——us, if we're being honest——are at war against our desire to have more and our desire to be happy and content. We are driven by the impulses that society has subconsciously inserted into our minds. How does one overcome such impulses? How does one become free? I suppose if we knew the answer to that we’d have moved on from capitalism. Humans are terrible at recognizing that, sometimes, enough is enough. And until they do, society will never evolve into the next dominant social structure.

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