Being free sounds great in theory, but being free means free from all your worldly possessions and begging for everything you cant provide yourself with. I suspect most people going it alone wouldn't last very long with no healthcare, no money to buy food, fuel, shelter, travel etc.
Being free is selfish then if you're relying on others to provide you with all you need to sustain yourself as it means robbing some of our salary in taxes to keep you alive and healthy. Money that we could all use to have a better lifestyle. You could always beg though, but to me that doesn't sound very appealing.
I think a visit to most third world countries would show us that the best examples of true freedom isn't all it's cracked up to be, unless you're happy to take away the safety net and become self sufficient as part of a tribe. Yep they're free alright - as long as their community isn't devastated by deforestation, a drought or whatever, but if you're lucky enough to survive birth, you'd be very lucky to have a long & healthy life.
Freedom for me is the time I get to do whatever I want after work, at weekends and on holiday. Maybe the best I could hope for is more flexible hours to accommodate my lifestyle better.
The census is a pain in the arse to fill in and a bit intrusive, but if it helps oil the machine better by recalibrating here and there based on the info, then it's a small price to pay for we've got.