Except that buying index funds is like paying somebody to take your vote from you. The dollar value of your account is meaningless. Those proxy votes say who goes on the board, what the company’s social agenda is, what countries they operate in, which political leaders they support, laws they sponsor, etc. And frankly, passive funds are anything but passive. With 80% of the money in the market and only yearly retargeting, they control far more liquidity than they need to make any market structure they want. So no, there is no freedom without a hard store of value.