At work I have the same discussion whenever I start with a new customer. I'm a freelancer in IT and I'm usually surrounded by other IT consultants who are employed directly by the customer or by some consultancy house hiring them out to that customer. While those directly employed by the customer value the 'job-security' in terms of continuous work-environment, proximity to home and family, personal ties to colleagues, etc., those employed by consultancy firms are always questioning why I earn so much more for exactly the same job. Answer: I'm doing exactly the same work, under the exactly same circumstances, with exactly the same financial and family obligations they face. The only difference is: I like taking responsibility for my own life, for my own work, my own family. I don't need anybody else who steps in when I fail, who directs me when I'm lost, who values me when I doubt myself. Of course I also face the same challenges, but when I fail I only have myself to blame (and am dependant only on myself to correct the error), when I miss someone close it's up to me to make arrangements to get home (one look in the mirror and 'the boss' has approved my holiday no matter how long or how soon) and when I've lost my miserable little way in life nobody can show me the next exit-ramp - have to find it on my own (at least that one won't be congested by wanna-be's). BUTTT ... 'you have so many years of experience, no cravings for a daily family-life, financial security in properties, .......' So do YOU same as ME ... strange how few of them dare to take the plunge, to live their lives on their own terms. And when I tell them we're all owned by the state, that I don't even have a right to my physical body, my work, my life, and it's disposal, I've lost them completely. Being completely on your own, your full and only self, is not valued in human society - it's feared in a deep and hidden primal way. Everything else is just excuses to mask that fear. So if Mr. Obama would kindly relinquish the property title he would hold on me if I lived in the U.S. of A.. I'd be happy to continue building my life, my work, my values, on my own, fully responsible for myself, helped along only by those freely and willingly contributing to my life in exchange for values they want from me. He doesn't have to be the shoulders I step on to be successful - he just has to step out of my way - or should I say 'get off my back'.
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