What we usually call freedom is, I suspect, mostly insulation from consequences, and wealth happens to be very good at buying insulation. It gets you out of the line. It turns a disastrous mistake into a mildly expensive one. None of that is quite freedom, which becomes obvious once you look at a king. He seems like the least constrained man in the realm until you start counting what he answers to, beginning with his own status and ending somewhere around the fear that it could all slide. At least his servants get their evenings off. So I’d define freedom a little differently. It has less to do with commanding people than with how few obligations you’re carrying that you never really chose. Each one stakes a claim on your future time. Debt, for instance, wants you back next month and the month after. Even luxuries nibble; the vacation home needs insurance and someone to check on it, and it also moves into the back of your head rent-free. Plenty of wealthy people collect obligations fas...