Harry Browne - How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty - Harry Browne

How I Found
FREEDOM
in an
UNFREE
WORLD
A Handbook for Personal Liberty
HARRY BROWNE
25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
WITH A NEW FOREWORD AND AFTERWORD
Freedom is living your life as you want to live it.
You can have that freedom now,
without waiting to change the world or the people around you.

You've been taught from childhood that you must make compromises, that you must accept the bad with the good, that in marriage you must be prepared to give 60% and get 40%.
You've been told that you shouldn't be selfish, that you should live by a moral code someone else thinks is best, that you must put others first, that you can't live as you want because other people won't allow it. You've heard hundreds of clichs reminding you that life is meant to be gray and burdensome.
This book explodes those notionsshowing how life can be enjoyed. You can make a living doing something you like. Your love affair can be an excitement, not a burden. Your friendships can bring joy, not obligations.
Life isn't a dog-eat-dog experience. You can have what you want without hurting others. You can live as you think best without having to convince others that it's okay to do so. You can live the kind of life that you want to liveone that's custom-made for you by you, not one produced on an assembly line.
This book contains no mystical secrets or pep talks. With simple, common sense, Harry Browne explains how you can decide what life is best for you, how you can begin living that life now, and how you can escape all the traps and boxesthe fictitious obligations and liabilitiesthat have been holding you back.
He shows how to minimize the government's intrusions in your life, how to reduce the demands others make upon your time and resources and how to deal with people who call you "selfish" when you don't give them what they selfishly want.
Most of all, he shows that you don't have to convince others to let you be free. The decisions are entirely yours. He explains how to make plans and set goals that rely only on your actionsthat don't depend on others for their success.
Yes, you can be free. And you can start right now.
ISBN 0-9656036-7-9
LiamWorks
Great Falls, Montana
www.liamworks.com

How I Found
FREEDOM
in an
UNFREE
WORLD
A Handbook for Personal Liberty

Freedom is living your life the way you want to live it. This book shows how you can have that freedom now without having to change the world or the people around you.
Harry Browne has found ways to live without being bound by social restrictions, family problems, high taxes, or long working hourswithout having to give up love, money, or personal relationships in order to be free to make his own decisions. The brand of individualism he reveals in this book isn't a theory or a dream; he has lived it.
He shows how you can have freedom, too. But he doesn't ask you to change yourself to fit his mold. In fact, he says that your way of life must take into consideration your emotional nature, your goals, your values, and your tastesor you aren't really free.
The book points out that most people aren't free for two reasons:
First: They're unaware of the many alternatives available to them. They don't realize that there are:
ways to avoid social restrictions without becoming a hermit;
ways to avoid the common problems of marriage without giving up love;
ways to be successful without becoming a slave to your job;
ways to avoid high taxes without going to jail.
Second: They've accepted certain common assumptions that have no basis in fact, as:
"You have no right to think of yourself."
"The kind of freedom you want is immoral."
"You should help make this a better world."
"You have a duty to your country."
"Marriage requires compromise and sacrifice."
How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World shows the emptiness in these and other clichs, and follows through with specific ways in which you can be free from whatever may be preventing you from living your life as you want to live it. It offers dozens of techniques to lead you from wherever you are now to the life you really want.
As Harry Browne says in the final chapter, "Wherever you go will be up to you. Whatever you do, it should be fun. Life is an adventure, not a burden."
Harry Browne has proven that you can succeed without following the old formulas for success. A college dropout, he was 34 years old before becoming interested in investments, and then became one of America's best-known investment advisors. He was 37 when his first book was published, and then produced three best-sellers and six other top-selling books. At 63 he was the Libertarian Presidential candidate.
This anniversary edition contains a new Foreword and Afterword updating Harry Browne's ideas.
Books by Harry Browne
How You Can Profit from the Coming Devaluation (1970)
How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World (1973)
You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis (1974)
Harry Browne's Complete Guide to Swiss Banks (1976)
New Profits from the Monetary Crisis (1978)
Inflation Proofing Your Investments (with Terry Coxon, 1981)
Investment Rule #1 (privately published, 1985)
Why the Best Laid Investment Plans Usually Go Wrong (1987)
The Economic Time Bomb (1989)
Why Government Doesn't Work (1995)

How I Found
FREEDOM
in an
UNFREE
WORLD
A Handbook for Personal Liberty
HARRY BROWNE
25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
WITH A NEW FOREWORD AND AFTERWORD

To Pamela

Contents

PROLOGUE

Foreword to the
25th Anniversary Edition

THIS BOOK WAS FIRST PUBLISHED in 1973. The hardcover edition fell out of print in the early 1980s, and the paperback version went out of print around 1990. Since then it has been available only through used book dealers.
So I'm very pleased that LiamWorks has published this new edition.
After rereading it, I'm happy to see that the book still reflects my view of how the world works and the principles that guide my actions.
By and large I have resisted the temptation to tinker with the text. I know from experience that any attempt to make changes would have led to my writing a whole new book. And that isn't how I want to spend the next year or so of my life.
I have corrected some grammatical flaws, and I've rewritten a half-dozen phrases that seemed ambiguous. I have also eliminated references to books and other sources that are no longer available. And I replaced the Recommended Reading section with a new list prepared by an associate, Michael Cloud. It contains books available now that provide additional insights and strategies related to the ideas presented in this book.
But the rest of the words remain as they were in the first edition. I haven't rewritten the examples to make them more contemporary. Nor have I adjusted any money amounts for the intervening years of inflation, so please keep that in mind wherever money is mentioned.
And I didn't change words to conform with today's fashions. Thus the word "he" is used to refer to someone who could be of either sex. And I refer often in the book to a "free man"which, of course, could be either a man or a woman.
The book's new element is an Afterword that updates my thinking on some subjects.
So this is essentially the same book published in 1973. I happily stand by it.
And I hope you enjoy it.

Prologue

Freedom in
an Unfree World

FREEDOM is the opportunity to live your life as you want to live it.
The urge for freedom is so much a part of human nature that it can never be suppressed by laws, slogans, or commandments. There is a difference, however, between the urge and the reality. For most people, freedom remains a pleasant fantasysomething to dream of while carrying out daily obligations in the real world.