The real use of money is to buy freedom

Freedom is indeed bought with money, but not in the way that most people think. There's a shell game going on right now for the lowest class worker.

At the time the US economy had it's "oh shit" moment around 2007-2008, I was working at a marketing research company. At the time I was working from home being paid by the hour, but there wasn't a lot of work coming in. I was broke most times after paying bills, so I had to find a quick patch job.

I began working at a McDonald's. At this point I was staying available online for most of the day until the afternoon, at which I would go to McDonald's and work all night. I found a bartender gig and started to work that on my off days of McDonald's.

At that point, I was making good money, but there wasn't any time I had to myself. I ended up quitting the marketing research job, as I was making more from McDonald's alone.

Now I was making OK money, but still not having a single day off. The bartender gig was getting more and more violent (I worked at a rough R&B club getting paid under the table). I eventually left the bartending job (there was a shooting there less than a week later). I don't think I need to explain what life was like working only at McDonald's, even if I was being paid more than most non-managers.

It's a bit hard to communicate what was exactly wrong with this picture. As a low wage worker, it was impossible for me to both have time and money, or leverage either of them to get myself into a better position.

When I had money, I had no time to leverage it. I couldn't finish a degree, I couldn't even keep a girlfriend. It was easy to slip into depression and substance abuse. I drank a lot. When I did get the chance to go out and have fun, it was to the extreme.

When I didn't have money but I had time, it was equally as bad. I couldn't go out to bars, I barely could keep up on bills. I couldn't take time off to go to the doctor. I couldn't afford to lose hours, nor afford the doctor's visit. When I had to go to the emergency room, I had to take the hit to my credit. I couldn't go across town or go to the show, I was behind on either electric or gas most months. And electric people have no qualms in shutting off your power and then laughing in your face when you say you can't even cook food.

It's interesting to me that when you're in that trap, it's almost impossible to pull yourself out. On one end of the spectrum, if you have the money to better yourself, you don't have the time to do so. You can't leverage the three jobs on resumes, nor is that a replacement for a degree.

On the other end, if you work one or two jobs, you don't have money enough to get a degree, or take a vacation, or take sick days, or go to the doctor, or change cities, or go to a concert, or have a night on the town, or even (sometimes) keeping internet.

So yes, I would argue that the real use of money is to buy freedom. It's just that most don't realize it, until they are stuck at the very bottom wondering how the hell they can get out. I'm not saying I did everything perfect, but I don't feel I did anything horribly wrong either.

And I'm doing fine now. I ended up getting with a start up doing Node.js and frontend JS work, which was enough to jump start my career.

EDIT: And yes, technically I'm falling into a logical fallacy here: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/anecdotal

1) People freely exchange goods and services.

2) Wealth is distributed without free exchange.

It's a spectrum not an absolute.

In free exchange (me trading with my boss or with Google or with a grocery store) I will never enter into a trade that has a lower expected value than the dollar value I'm giving up. In other words in every exchange I will either gain value or match value.

On the second side of the spectrum I (me with the government, me with a slaver) will enter into a trade regardless of its outcome - meaning that I could lose value on any trade (for instance by paying into a poorly run social program, supporting a war that I disagree with or paying to be spied on). Also closer to the second range there becomes a coercive aspect where I am forced into something at the threat of violence (pay taxes or go to prison).

Evidence shows the more freely exchanged goods and services there are (with some exceptions) the more productive the country. See: http://www.freetheworld.com/release.html

If strong property laws are in place alongside an impartial justice system and limited government (one not influenced by wealth) human choice, good or bad, is respected and freedom reigns. When government is large and powerful or the justice system doesn't function properly (can be bought) coercion reigns.

Those who would rather not provide value (or believe that their value is worth more than others will give them for it) may prefer the coercive side.

http://paulgraham.com/gap.html

Wealth is not a zero sum game.

How much money were you spending on alcohol and the few times you went out "crazy"? Substance abuse sounds like a few beers a night - costing $20 a week or so? That's two hours of free time (closer to three) a week.

I would really like to see a breakdown of your expenses during that period of your life.