Which country has more freedom?

[Person Man]

Country B is more free. 

You don't HAVE to purchase things with a credit card.  You don't HAVE to surf the internet leaving cookies everywhere.  You don't HAVE to do buisness with companies that sell your info to the highest bidder.  In Country A, you HAVE to pay higher taxes and buiseness HAVE to deal with strict govt interference.  You are more free, by far, in country B.

You don't HAVE to... if you're fine with living in a cave.

Given how much of my time is already taken up by answering the phone only to find a telemarketer on the other end, I shudder to think of what country B would be like.

Damn, they gotta get Caller ID up to Canada

Caller ID doesn't help my ass.

...this is still really open ended.

If anything that the private sector retrieves from you can be used as criminal evidence against you, then A. If this is not the case, and you have the right to your credit score, your information, and a DNC listing, then B. To me, economic issues and the profit/public spheres are not big issues. I want to know my real civil liberties....

So far, I would say B so long as no long as there is a bar on criminal evidence that the government itself would not be able to investigate or find. So long as industry is not used as a constitutional loophole, B sounds peachy to me.

[Person Man]

Neither are free enough, but B is more free.

That would be correct. But what if what the corporations find out about you could be used to prosecute you without a warrant?

[Person Man]

Neither are free enough, but B is more free.

That would be correct. But what if what the corporations find out about you could be used to prosecute you without a warrant?

But that wasn't the question.  Still B though because you don't HAVE to do business with companies that gather, sell and trade your info.

Would they still be able to, even if you didn't?

[Person Man]

Neither are free enough, but B is more free.

That would be correct. But what if what the corporations find out about you could be used to prosecute you without a warrant?

But that wasn't the question.  Still B though because you don't HAVE to do business with companies that gather, sell and trade your info.

Well, okay, but the absolute demand of "freedom for the sake of freedom" is not really any better than others and probably worse. I like freedom, but I am willing to see where small compromises are a better idea. And don't come back at me with a Ben Franklin quote; the Founders were well aware of the Social Contract.

That's a good response. Also, Freedom can bite back. You may trade one oppressor for another. Perhaps it is best that both...say...big government and big business are comprimised....at the minimium loss of freedom. Perhaps there are conditions where freedom is at its ultimate highest point.

[Person Man]

Neither are free enough, but B is more free.

That would be correct. But what if what the corporations find out about you could be used to prosecute you without a warrant?

But that wasn't the question.  Still B though because you don't HAVE to do business with companies that gather, sell and trade your info.

Well, okay, but the absolute demand of "freedom for the sake of freedom" is not really any better than others and probably worse. I like freedom, but I am willing to see where small compromises are a better idea. And don't come back at me with a Ben Franklin quote; the Founders were well aware of the Social Contract.

I've always seen freedom as a means to an end, not an end in itself.  That end being, of course, the ability of people to pursue and obtain happiness, which is really the only thing that matters in life in the end.  If a particular freedom is actively impeding that end, then I would say that it is not a good freedom.

Everyone supports restriction of freedoms in some way.  You wouldn't be able to support the incarceration of criminals if you didn't, since that is obviously impeding their freedom.

So it is about the Persuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness than freedom or "freedom".