>> When I was a kid, you’d often hear something like: “May I sit here?” “Sure, it’s a free country.”
>> I haven’t heard anyone say “it’s a free country” in a LONG time. Why do you suppose that is?
For the same reason people don’t say “Radical!” or “Bodacious” very much. Because that was a cute catch-phrase several decades ago.
Absurd anecdotes don’t particularly help your case. I wouldn’t extrapolate your experience with people not saying “its a free country” as evidence that the nation is less free ... its merely evidence that common vernacular has changed.
You can sit anywhere you want.
H
Can I take my own money across the border? Sort of, when I was a kid, one could sell his own house and take all the money to Mexico, and retire.
A few years back, when we all became suspected drug runners, congress decided I could only take $10,000 out of the country without jumping through major hoops.
Last I heard it's down to $5,000.
Now, if I sell my house in California, and take that cash with me on a drive to set up my new life in, say, Georgia, and any podunk cop pulls me over for "Driving with out-of-state plates" his little Podunk PD can confiscate all that money and the car because simply having that much cash is prima facie evidence that it's drug money.
Of course, I can fight them in court, and with luck in 5 or 10 years I'll get my car and money back, less legal costs, and without interest.
Yeah, I'm a whole lot freer than my parents were.