You need to work <i>for someone</i> to survive.  The point is, there is a tiny minority of capitalists,  who decide what to work on, and how.  The rest of us hardly have a say.  In terms of personal freedom, this is just as bad as a command economy (no more, no less).  Also, remember that in some places, people can&#x27;t even chose their employer.  It&#x27;s work in the mine, or starve.  We westerners have it easy.<p>An independent contractor will still need to work to survive.  But at least she&#x27;s free from any boss… <i>if</i> she&#x27;s really independent —that is, she can afford to turn down contracts.<p>Pensioners, or otherwise &quot;financially independent&quot; people are even free from lucrative work.  They don&#x27;t need to work for their continued survival.  They can instead like look over their grandchildren or do some community work.<p>I&#x27;m sure there are higher attainable degrees of freedom yet.  But let&#x27;s work on the worst problems first.  We more or less solved slavery and serfdom.  Now there is employment.  Next will be the need to survive.  Next… I don&#x27;t know, physical limitations?