WHAT ‘TO DO’ by Ancil Nance

For all the kids that I know.

It is not unusual for people to get the opposite of what they thought they were looking for. For instance, in a search for freedom, people often end up as slaves. A person must look ahead to the possible results of their actions. It is not unusual for someone to work like a slave in their younger years and then be totally free as an adult. Which is better: Being totally free for a few years as a young person and then working like a slave the rest of your life, or the other way?

Time is something we must think about because that is what our life depends on. We are time travelers. We get born, grow, and die. Time is where we do it. It is not a renewable resource. We use it up. It is gone. It is strange to me why anyone would choose to spend their few moments of time doing anything that would limit their own freedom.

Freedom costs something. We all want more and more freedom. We can’t get more time, but maybe we can get more freedom. How? Freedom requires three things. INTELLIGENCE, EDUCATION, MONEY. Money is here defined as what you use to trade with other people for what you want. You want a place to live, food to eat, clothes to wear, and time to do things with and for people. The more time you spend working the less time you have to do things with and for people, unless you have a job that you love and it is with people. Those kinds of jobs usually require more education.

When you are out on your own, everything costs you something; usually money. If you want an education, any kind of education, you will pay for it. College, beauty and business school, computer classes, etc. all cost bucks.

As a teenager in America you get for free an education, a place to live, food to eat, clothes, health care (teeth, glasses, etc.) As an adult you have to buy all that stuff. Living at home you are a teenager. Moving out, you are an adult. Consider the costs of both choices. To be a teenager, all it costs is being a good citizen. What is that, a good citizen? A good citizen is simply one who sees what needs to be done and does it. Stuff like housework and schoolwork. That’s all. You may not believe me now, but that is the easiest kind of work you will ever have. Every other kind of work is harder, larger, with worse bosses.

You know things cost money. But, do you know how much? Do you know how much people earn in their jobs? Do you know how to get a job that pays you the most for the least amount of time spent? Do you know why some people are stuck in low paying jobs that take all their time so they have no time left for themselves and their friends? Everything you will need and want will cost something. Mostly I am talking about things. I know you will want love and friendship and happiness. But if you are bogged down in a survival job, barely making ends meet and you and your kids are starving, then that all takes a back seat to getting the bread on the table and keeping a roof over your head. With no further education you may be lucky enough to get a job that pays $15 an hour. How many hours a day will you have to work to pay for what you think you will need and want?

A simple math lesson will help answer that question. $15 an hour is what you think you earn until you remember the tax man. He gets the first $2. Okay, that means you get $13 for every hour you work. Usually people work 8 hours a day. That means you earn $104 a day, $520 a week, or $2080 a month. With that you get to pay your rent, buy food, clothes, pay for either your car/gas/insurance or bus fare, pay the doctor and dentist, buy your shampoo, go to the movies and pay your tuition at whatever school you want to attend.. Have I left anything out? Probably.

Most people find that they can’t live on that amount of money, so they have to get two jobs, which means they work more and have less time for themselves and friends and family. In fact, there are people who make $30 and $60 an hour who still can’t manage to make ends meet. They become slaves to a crappy job or two because they have limited their choices too early in life.

I am sure you have heard that before, that stuff about limited choices. The less education you have the less choices you have. That is a fact of life. It is also your choice. An intelligent person can think about the life of a slave and decide to avoid it, because it doesn’t seem all that great.

Remember what I said about freedom? Freedom requires INTELLIGENCE, EDUCATION and MONEY. Right now you have INTELLIGENCE. You are smart. You only have a little education; you know you need more. You have very little money. You have one out of three things you need or freedom. Your intelligence will get you by, but you will not be free. You will be a wage slave, just like a lot of other smart but choice-limited people.

Remember what I said about time: You don’t get any more. When it is gone, it is gone. At 77 years of age, I am sure I am more sensitive to this than you are at 16, 17 or 18. But it is true for both of us. If it is true that you only have a limited amount of time (24 hours a day for ? years), why would you choose to spend more time than is necessary working at some crappy job? With a little effort now on school work you could greatly increase your chances to have a choice job later that would leave you more time to be free. Can you see what working 16 hours a day at $15 an hour job will do to your life? It will rob you of your freedom. Freedom is based on time. Time is limited and running out for anyone who is alive.

It is possible to make choices in life that will give you even more choices in the future, which means freedom. It is also possible to make limiting choices that lead to slavery; a slavery without physical chains, but still slavery.