Issue136：第一篇，求拍：）

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TOPIC: ISSUE136 - "The absence of choice is a circumstance that is very, very rare."
WORDS: 488          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2010-2-16 12:56:25

Human being is among the very few species with intelligence, and thus has the capability to think and behave in their own ways. One of the most frequent things humans do is making choices, from the time when they are infants, to their childhood, then to adolesence and youth, and finally to elder years. Some people hold the opinion that we humans far too often have plenty of choices, and the absense of choice is very rare. However, this view is more an illusion that an reality.

Admittedly, under many situations and on many things, people have the freedom of choice. They have the rights to express their opnions, to be educated, to live a life without poverty, and to have happy families, as stated in the Constitution and protected by laws. By law, they can freely choose the life styles they like, the career they want to pursue, the place where they live. As the sciences and technoligies are rapidly progressing, they even get more freedom to spend times with their families, for leisure, or to attend social activities to build up their relationships.

However, all these are much more illusions than realities. With the invention of computers and Internet, people do get their productivity enhanced signifcantly, but they actually have not get more leisure time, but rather have to dial to their desktops and lab computers in the company and work overtime, read E-mail even when they are at home. With mobile phones, workers may be waked up by calls from managers and be asked back to work due to urgent issues. How can we conclude that technical and scicence advancements improve people's life quality.

Also, considering the young people living in large cities. They have worked hard in school years to get better adademic records and find decent jobs with high salaries in large companies. After they graduated and become professinals, they have to continue to work hard to earn enough money to pay high living costs in large cities and buy appartments there. In some cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and ShenZhen in China, top-school graduates still have to pay about 15 to 20 years of their income for an apparment. Do they have reasonable choices? Some people may say they have the choice to go back to small cities and live there, but how easily can they find a job there. Therefore, people usually have much less freedom of choice than what appears to be.

Moreover, people usually find it hard to make choices because their current choices may affect the next ones, and in turn their careers and lives.

In conclusion, those individuals who are most capable, usually have the most and the best choices. Freedom of choice is an illusion, unless you are those in power, or if your life goal is just to be a farmer - regardless of the problems of medicine, education of children, and personal ecnomical success.