LLP #119: What Thomas Sowell Knew About Freedom and Prosperity

Ask us a question. We will answer it on the podcast.

Show sponsors:

Choq
choq.com
25% off any subscription
Promo code: LLP

My Patriot Supply
PrepareWithLLP.com
$200 Off

Modern Warrior
10% 0ff Your First Order
Promo code: Liberty

Allegiance Gold
844-790-9191
AllegianceGold.com/LLP
Get Up To $5000 In FREE Gold or Silver Coins

What do empty shopping malls, crowded theme parks, and the rising cost of housing reveal about the true state of American capitalism? In this thought-provoking conversation, Eric and Matt bring their unique perspectives as small business owners to challenge popular narratives about economic doom and gloom.

The duo explores how consumer behavior has fundamentally shifted away from material accumulation toward experience-based spending. While traditional retail spaces like malls appear to be struggling, premium vacation destinations like Great Wolf Lodge and Disney World remain packed with families willing to spend hundreds per night. This contradiction reveals something profound about modern values, particularly among younger generations who prioritize memorable experiences over possessions.

They tackle the generational divide head-on, addressing how Boomers who purchased homes for $65,000 often fail to recognize why Millennials and Gen Z struggle with $400,000 starter homes. The fact that the average age of first-time homebuyers has risen to 54 speaks volumes about changed economic circumstances. Drawing inspiration from economists like Thomas Sowell, they discuss how currency debasement, inflation, and shifting cultural values have transformed the American Dream.

Most powerfully, Eric and Matt reflect on their personal journeys, acknowledging how they once chased material wealth before recognizing that time represents our ultimate currency. This realization—that experiences and relationships ultimately matter more than possessions—mirrors broader economic shifts happening nationwide. Whether examining the firearms industry's current downturn or discussing dating standards, they continually return to how smart adaptation rather than complaint defines successful entrepreneurs.

Ready for an honest, unfiltered conversation about money, markets, and what really matters? Subscribe now and join two veterans who've learned that observation, not ideology, reveals economic truth.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back everybody.
This is Eric and Matt and thisis Life, liberty and the Pursuit
, your beacon of freedom and theAmerican way of life.
Tune in every Monday for a newepisode as we dive into the
world of liberty and what makesour country great.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
All right, everybody, welcome back.
This is Eric and Matt here withLife, liberty and the Pursuit.
Your beacon for all thingsfreedom in a world gone
absolutely bonkers.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Absolutely bonkers.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, today's show is bonkers because we're going to
be talking about the economy andcapitalism and, you know, all
sorts of fun things like thatSmall business Today's show.
You know, we're really going totalk about how things are going
.
It seems that you know, nomatter what sort of economist
you talk to on a regular basis,it seems that there's always
some sky is falling scenario.

(00:49):
And I will sort of prefacetoday's show by mentioning look,
matt and I are by no meansfinancial experts.
You know we're not.
You know we're not claiming tobe experts on the economy.
We are simply small businessowners who are going to put in
our two cents and give ouropinion on some of the things
that are going on and share someobservations that we have

(01:11):
collectively made.
And today's show will also bediscussing the gun industry.
So many people follow me hereon Iraq Veteran on the main
YouTube channel because I'mmainly into firearms Now that I
do have a great deal ofexpertise on.
So we will share some of thedownturn in the gun community
and kind of mention like, what'sgoing on with the gun industry
right now and we'll discuss thatin more detail as we go and we

(01:34):
also have a little Q&A session.
We're going to be answeringsome questions today on the show
and we are looking for guestsfor the show.
So let me know we already havea few people in mind.
We are still doing just a littlebit of housekeeping.
We are still doing some work onthe studio, so bear with us,
pardon the dust.
We are going to be changingsome things up and building some

(01:55):
new sets, so I'm really excitedabout that.
I've got a few things for saleon Gum Broker to help fund those
changes.
So if you want to put in somebids, go grab yourself something
and help us out there.
That would be great.
Some war bucks for the warchest we're going to get
cracking.
How are things?

Speaker 3 (02:14):
It's been great.
I think it's going to be agreat show and, like you said,
we're just two guys but we justhappen to be small business
owners and that you know itaffects us differently.
The way the economy moves andthe way that we react to the
economy is much different thanhow someone that's not a small

(02:36):
business owner is going to feelit.
We have to react a little bitdifferently.
Obviously, tariffs are.
They don't affect my business.
I'm not.
I own a jiu-jitsu academy, so weare all like we don't really
have any assets, it's justteaching and mats and we have
some gym equipment WithBallistic Inc.

(02:57):
We no longer operate BallisticInc.
However, with that said, thetariffs wouldn't have affected
ballistic ink anyways.
Uh, it was a hundred percentmade in the U S products, so
that wasn't an issue.
But it probably does affect 90%of clothing businesses because
a lot of those are coming infrom overseas, so I can see how

(03:19):
that can affect the bottom linefor them.
Um, your standard W2 employeesare going to feel it and they're
going to have theirreservations about it.
But, like I said, from astandpoint of being small
business owners, we tackle theseproblems a little bit
differently.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
We are going to break into it and, obviously, the
consumer.
We're going to discuss it fromthe consumer's perspective as
well, because we are obviouslyall consumers here, no matter
what.
So we will discuss consumerismas well, which you know.
I think you're going to likesome of the things I have to say
.
I have some very interestingobservations about it and my
views have changed a little bit.

(03:56):
But before we get started,we're going to thank our first
sponsor for the show, and thatis Chalk.
Our country just witnessedDonald Trump overcome political
persecution, an assassinationattempt and the entire deep
state to retake the presidencywith a historic victory.
There's one secret ingredientthat allowed Trump to do this,
and that's testosterone.
What most people don't realizeis that testosterone makes men

(04:18):
willing and eager to take onchallenges.
Sadly, too many of us have lostour fight, and that's exactly
how the globalists want it.
They want us weak, out of shapeand full of estrogen and
microplastics with low T.
That's why we're excited topartner with Chalk.
Chalk offers a whole lineup ofproducts formulated to increase
your energy focus, detoxify yourbody and clinically study to

(04:40):
boost testosterone.
Ingredients in the Chalk MillVitality Stack have been
clinically studied to boost freetestosterone in 87 chalk male
vitality stack have beenclinically studied to boost free
testosterone, and 87 in just 21days, unlike with gimmicky
vegetable pills or powder.
You will feel the differenceand they will have the clinical
studies to back it up.
Right now you can get 25 offyour chalk subscription for life

(05:01):
.
Just go go to Chalkcom it isspelled C-H-O-Q.
That is Charlie, hotel, oscar,quebec, trebek that always makes
you think of that memecom anduse the promo code LLP, lima,
lima, papa.
That's 25% off any subscriptionfor life and you can cancel

(05:22):
anytime.
Chalk is made in America andtheir all-american customer
service team is standing by toassist you.
It's time to make men'svitality great again.
Get yourself some chalk today.
Today, that's choqcom, thepromo code is llp for 25 off
your subscription for lifethat's a that's a good deal, man

(05:43):
.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
If you could tell me I could get 20% off of my needed
supplements for life 25% offson.
Shoot, sign me up, that's right.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
So we're going to look and dive into what's really
going on.
It's absolutely crazy.
I know we've discussed, we didour episode on tribalism and
globalism and just talking aboutthe overall global movement of
global trade which I'm not goingto ever claim to be some master

(06:13):
of, I know the chessboard.
As I see it, from an overallview, you don't know the
conversations that are occurringin back rooms.
You don't know what all theleaders of the world ultimately
know in terms of availableinformation to you as well as
potential threats.
So, geopolitically, let's justsay there is this huge empty

(06:35):
space that we are not reallygoing to be privy to some of the
things that, let's just face it, the world leaders know that we
don't know Things that arechanging, moves that are being
made, potential conflicts thatare arising.
I mean, there's going to besaber rattling that we can kind
of look at and say, hey, theseare things that are going on.
Well, we already cut an episodewhere we kind of dove into that

(06:57):
subject a bit.
What I really want this to beabout is how is all this really
affecting small business owners?
How is it affecting the endconsumer and is capitalism sort
of in the strange death throes?
I want to start out with alittle story, and it's not
really much of a story really,more of just an experience and

(07:17):
exposure.
And so you know, we recently mygirlfriend and I recently got a
new puppy and of course we liketo take the puppy on walks and
get her acquainted with people,because we don't want her to
grow up and be an a**hole dog.
We want her to be a sweet girl,so we want to get her around
people.
So we'll go to malls and allsorts of public places like that

(07:42):
and let her walk around andjust get used to being around
people and of course, folks arenaturally going to come up and
want to see the dog and pet thedog and all this sort of stuff.
I don't think I have to explainthe minutia of going to the
mall.
However, when you look at malls, all right, that's a really
good way to get an idea of whatis going on with the consumers

(08:05):
in your, in your given, culture.
Ok, look at mall culture.
Back in the 1990s, for instance, the mall was the place to be.
Oh goodness.
They were open late.
They all had really nice fancyarcades.
Moms would drop the kids off atthe arcade with 20 bucks and

(08:26):
the kid could play on arcademachine for hours on $20.
I'm not sitting here trying to.
You know, paint it as someBeaver Cleaverville picturesque
landscape, but it was relativelypicturesque.
I mean, the malls were reallycool place to hang out Lots of
really good stores.
Now I understand that the natureof consumerism has changed

(08:46):
vastly over the last 30 yearswith, you know, internet
shopping and you know we aregoing to discuss places like
Amazon here in a moment.
We're not going to, we haven'tgotten there yet but we will.
But you notice it almost hasthis feeling like capitalism is
in its death throes.
If you simply look at somethinglike a mall and you go well,

(09:07):
for one, the place is kind ofdead.
There's not a lot of peoplewalking around, Unless it's a
real busy weekend.
It's just not very busy.
Two, you look at people walkingaround.
Do they have shopping bags intheir hands?
I remember in the 90s when yougo in a shopping mall and some
soccer mom be walking aroundwith bags full of shit, I mean

(09:27):
walk around with a starbucks inher hand or whatever it may be.
You know, maybe not then Idon't think starbucks is around
there, but you know, walk aroundwith their drink and their
little dog and tons of bags andand you just had this overall
feeling and view that like, wow,the economy's strong, like you
see soccer moms walk around withbags full of crap, Toy stores
large toy stores like Babbage'swere open and you know that

(09:51):
store's been out of business fora long time, but like it just
was crazy.
It's like people had a lot moredisposable income.
And I guess that's really whatthis comes down to is debasement
of currency.
And again, I'm no financialexpert, Matt, I'm no economist,
but it doesn't take a degree ineconomics for someone to see

(10:11):
that when you print yourself outof oblivion with a currency,
you're debasing the value ofthat currency.
You're taking away from thevalue of people who hold that
currency.
If you simply print it out ofnowhere, you devalue the
currency and you end up havingless purchasing power, dollar
for dollar, than you hadpreviously and you continue to

(10:34):
eat and pay a hidden tax.
That is part of the currencydebasement right.
It's fractional banking.
The way that that system worksis they loan out more money than
they have.
They do not have the money theyloan out.
They loan out way more thanwhat they actually have.
Now you look at this thing undera giant let's just say

(10:56):
microcosm an overhead view, avery broad overhead view.
Again, I'm not claiming to besome master economist, but I
don't think it takes a mastereconomist to see what is really
going on here and the play thatis in place when a certain group
of people is allowed to gamethe system in a way that

(11:17):
benefits them in perpetuity andthat they do not actually have
to suffer the consequences ofbad decisions, be it a bad
policy decision, a bad economicdecision, a bad purchase
decision.
If you paid twice as much foryour car than what it was worth,
that'd be a bad economicdecision for you to make.

(11:39):
That'd be a bad financialdecision, correct.
But what if you could makethose decisions in perpetuity
without consequence?
That's what we're seeing.
We have an entire subset of oursociety that do not have to be
beholden to their shittydecisions.
We carry the consequences ofthose decisions, not them, and I

(12:02):
forget who said it, but the wayany empire ends up falling is
they wind up spending someoneelse's money.
Any empire is going to fail ifall they do is spend someone
else's money, and they neverhave to actually suffer the
consequences of bad decisions.
Are we at?

Speaker 3 (12:18):
a point.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Matt, where it's like the death throes emptying the
coffers of the Roman Empire, oris that where we are?

Speaker 3 (12:25):
No, I think there's a lot of fear mongering.
There's a lot of people sayingthat capitalism is on its way
out.
But I'll tell you that couldn'tbe farther from the case and
I'll tell you that fromexperience I was at and this is
just one small part.
Everybody says, oh, theeconomy's in shambles.
I was at Great Wolf Lodge overthe weekend with my.

(12:48):
We had a wrestling tournamentwith my daughter.
Great Wolf Lodge is notinexpensive by any means.
It's like 350, 400 a night.
It's a giant water park, if youguys know.
It's a giant water park indoors, like hotel, it's like a theme
park that you stay at,absolutely packed.
I mean, every single room inthat place was sold out.

(13:11):
Park was filled up.
So if the economy is doing sobad, how is this place full?
Like?
I'm not seeing what they'rereporting and they're saying, oh
, gas prices are high.
It's $1.79 a gallon here inGeorgia.
It's pretty inexpensive.

(13:33):
When you look at capitalism as awhole, there's going to be that
subset of people that takeadvantage of those I should say
public services.
But there's also the peoplethat want to use capitalism to
get out and get up and besuccessful, and that is what
capitalism is about.
It's about being able to riskit all and be successful.

(13:56):
It's about being able to pullyourself up, quote by your
bootstraps and make something ofyourself.
The harder you work, the moreyou get out of it.
And I'll use China as anexample.
Right now they're having a.
You might not see it onmainstream TV because they're
not reporting it, but there area ton of protests going on.

(14:18):
It's like an uprising in Chinaright now.
You can go there's actuallycontent creators that specialize
in getting that information outof China and you can see it.
They're having to quash all ofthese uprisings from the younger
generation because they don'thave capitalism.
It's actually a huge problem.

(14:39):
It's called the movement islike let it rot.
That's what it translates to inEnglish and the younger
generation don't have any way tomove up.
It's a communist country, soyou are what you are.
It's not like you can getpromoted in a company and do
well for yourself.
You're kind of already set.

(14:59):
And these younger generationthere's no benefit for them to
wake up in the morning and go towork and, you know, really
grind it out, because they'renever going to get to where they
need to be at to be successful.
It's our.
That story has already beenwritten, so they just let it rot
.
And they're having a hugeproblem right now.
They have to go through, andthat you know.

(15:29):
Xi jinping is begging thatyounger generation to like help
and to get back to work and tomake something of themselves.
But what's the benefit?
Why would they do that?
You know there's nothing in itfor them.
Um, you have other countriesthat are, uh, capitalistic in
nature, based off of the USstyle.
So you have South Korea, youhave Japan.
Both of those countries do verywell, but they also have the

(15:52):
same issue.
You know the older generationare in place.
The younger generation aren'thaving kids.
They have very, very lowpopulation rates and there is no
desire for that generation togo up.
They don't care.
There's no financial benefit tothem.
The cost of living is extremelyhigh, so they could try to make

(16:15):
more money.
It's going to be the sameVersus in the US.
We have every incentive to dobetter because there is no top.
The cream rises to the top,brother, like you're going to
make it.
It just depends on how hard youwork, and to me, that's what
capitalism is all about.
It's not about you know whateverybody wants.

(16:38):
Like oh, we get like yes, it'sgreat that we have.
You know, everything is basedoff of democracy and we get to
vote and everybody has a voice,but that also means that
everybody has the ability to besuccessful.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, I totally agree and you know, I think that
that's a very astute observation.
You know talking about birthrates, because I know that's
something that Elon discusses alot, and a lot of other
economists discuss the decliningbirth rates and that is a
problem, and I think thatsociety begins to get this form
of apathy.
So we will discuss that alittle bit Before we go too much

(17:15):
further.
I do want to give a shout-outto the next sponsor in the show.
That's our friends at myPatriot Supply.
Let me ask you something If thegrocery store shelves went
empty tomorrow, would yourfamily be ready?
I trust MyPatriotSupply with myfamily's food security and
here's why They've helpedmillions of Americans prepare

(17:36):
for the worst, and they haveover 70,000 five-star reviews.
I personally keep theirthree-month emergency food kit
on hand and right now you canget it for $200 off.
That's a huge discount and,believe me, my Patriot Supply
almost never offers deals likethis.
This food kit gives you 2,000calories a day per person for
three months.

(17:56):
The food tastes great, lasts upto 25 years, ships free, with
delivery in as little as twodays.
To take advantage of this deal,just go to preparewithllpcom.
Look, we can't control what'sgoing on in the world, but we
can control how prepared we are.
This $200 off discount is onlyfor a limited time, so don't

(18:16):
wait.
Go to preparewithllpcom rightnow.
That's preparewithllpcom to getyour peace of mind while it's
still available.
What a great group of people.
I mean.
Their food is fantastic and,you know, it does kind of
coincide with today's show a bit.
You know, that sponsor fitsperfect because people are a lot

(18:38):
more worried about the futurethan they have been, you know,
in the past.
Now I know that might be acliche thing for me to say Maybe
you go.
Well, every generation thinksthat the generation before them
or that comes after them has iteasier than they did.
There's some kind of odduniversal paradigm where you
know well, you kids don'tunderstand what it was like when

(19:00):
I was a kid, and then thosepeople were going to tell their
kids oh, you don't understandwhat it was like when I was a
kid.
And then those people weregoing to tell their kids oh, you
don't understand what it waslike when we were a kid.
Every generation always thinksthat they're superior to the
generation under them becausethey feel like what is theirs,
because they built it and put itthere.
But there might have also beenopportunities available to them
that weren't available to theyounger generation.

(19:21):
So when you see, for instance,a young Japanese person who is
living in a cubicle and workingtheir butt off 10 hours a day
and they can't even afford acubicle, much less a house to
raise a family in whatmotivation do they have to find
a girl and settle down and havea family when they're living in

(19:41):
a cubicle and it's takingeverything that they can produce
to simply live in a cubicle?
The suicide rates, as hard asthat is to talk about are quite
high in a place like Japan.
And again, we don't ever want tocall the Japanese out in any
way, that's not the intentionhere but that's a good example
how their society is sufferingfrom a really big issue with

(20:05):
motivation and with wages beingdecent enough.
I mean, there are a lot ofabandoned houses in Japan, but
they cost so much money torenovate and they're so
difficult to get to and a lot ofthem are in very remote places
and it's very difficult forpeople to get cars there.
You know you have to prove thatyou have a place to park a car.
To even buy a car, fuel'sexpensive.

(20:26):
So by the time you take allthose factors, yeah, the young
folks are suffering a lot and Iknow that people make this
comparison quite a bit, but I'mgoing to make the comparison
again.
Let's go back across the oceanto here All right, back to
America, america, back toAmerica.
Back there with them screamingeagles.

(20:47):
Good, so, all right, you lookat the boomer generation here.
You know a, a guy was born in1949.
Okay, right, you know he workshis summer job and buys a car.
You know, pays cash for a car,just doing his summer job or
something, saving up some money,you know.

(21:08):
He works for two or three yearsand saves up enough money to
buy 10 acres and builds a houseon it, you know, meets a young
hippie girl and settles down,has a family, you know, and one
day his homestead is worth, youknow, a half a million dollars
and it cost him $100,000.
You know, when you look at theboomer generation, they always

(21:29):
want to point their finger at usand say, well, you just aren't
working hard enough, you aren'tdoing this, you aren't doing
that Right.
But who bought a house for$65,000?
You're going to buy a house for$65,000 now.
Do you know what the averagecost to buy a house is right now
?
For the new homebuyer, for thefirst time homebuyer, it's
either right at or over $400,000is the minimum to get into.

(21:53):
Let's just say a small singlefamily dwelling wife and kids.
Let's say two kids and a wife,four people dwelling right.
Let's just say a three bedroom,two bath, maybe a garage and an
acre of land.
I believe, it Right, You'retalking 400 grand and I've seen
some houses around here that arerather unflattering for half a

(22:16):
million or 400,000.
So the prices have gotten crazy.
So for a boomer to look ayounger person in the face and
say, well, you're just notworking hard enough.
Well, how can that objectivelybe true when the average age of
a new home buyer do you knowwhat that age is?

Speaker 3 (22:37):
If I had to take a wild guess and I'm just taking a
step in the dark here 31.
No 54.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
What?
Most of the transactions thatare being carried out with real
estate involve people in their50s.
Okay, so what does that tellyou?
It tells you young peopledefinitely cannot afford on
their income to buy a home,right?
Yep, it means that investorsare buying these homes, people

(23:09):
like BlackRock and all that.
I mean, come on, look again,I'm not an economist, okay, I'm
not an expert here.
I'm just a person that justsees what's happening.
I mean it doesn't take a lot tojust look at the equation and
plug in some some figures and gowait a minute, something is not
adding up.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I'm proud of the boomergeneration.

(23:29):
They built a lot.
Sure, they were very successfuland, look, they were very lucky
.
Imagine being lucky enough to beborn in 1949, right after World
War II.
Too young to fight in theKorean War?
Too old to fight in VietnamHoly crap.
Way too old to fight inanyietnam holy crap.
Way too old to fight in anywars after that.
You're definitely not going todesert storm any of those other
places.

(23:49):
I mean the boomer generation.
You want to talk aboutprivilege.
You want to talk about someonewho's lucky.
Someone who was born afterworld war ii is extremely
freaking lucky.
they've had a lot of opportunity, didn't have to fight in any
wars yep I mean, come on, got tobe an adult during the hippie
era, free love and all that crapand lsd.
I mean, like you want to talkabout someone who's privileged

(24:12):
the world war ii generation wasprivileged after you know the
people that were children, yeahpost-world war ii.
And I'm not saying that's a badthing.
I mean, hey, all this death andchaos, what does the world want
to do?
They want to go home and makebabies.
I mean, think about it.
I get it.
It's the American dream.
What occurred was a verybeautiful thing, but when we

(24:33):
look at that nuclear householdfamily unit, that is not
achievable for a lot of youngpeople.
Now, you know, look, mygirlfriend and I just had this.
We were having this discussiona few days ago.
It might have even been lastnight.
I remember we were talkingabout how a lot of couples now
are 50-50.
Where they go, all right.

(24:53):
Well, the rent is X amount.
Well, the woman's going to pay50% and the guy's going to pay
50%.
What, wait a minute?
No, no, no.
On my grandpa's day he couldwork one job and pay all the
bills and they could have a carto drive and then new appliances
and a house and take a vacationor two every year and have

(25:14):
everything.
A nice Christmas, all right.
What's missing here?
So now it requires two incomesto do what one income used to do
.
If we look at it simply fromthat perspective, there's
something really wrong there.
So now people are gettingmarried or engaged or getting
together simply for survival.
Never mind, hey, do we havekids or not.
If people are living on thecuff of the edge of being able

(25:38):
to afford a home and, let's justsay, afford the American dream,
you know, they're almosttogether for survival as much as
they are.
Well, forget having a family.
We need to be together just sowe can collectively afford to
live.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
That I have seen.
I'm not saying it's everybodyRight, but it's a few, but to
your point it's true.
You used to be able to get byon a single income and you had
the one family car and you hadthe wife and the two kids and
you were still able to make itthrough life and you were still
able to do most of the thingsyou wanted to.

(26:14):
And obviously, the value of thedollar went down.
We got off the gold standard.
They started printing moremoney, um, and now we're we're
at, now we're not quite to thepoint of Venezuela where we're
burning bricks of money to cookfood and stay warm.
Um, and I'm not going to saythat we're, you know we're going
that way, cause obviously we'renot.

(26:35):
We're America.
We're the strongest country inthe world, we have the strongest
economy and we have thestrongest people.
We're going to continue to dowhat we need to do to survive.
And let's not get this twisted.
All right, people say, oh,america's in, like, the
economy's in shambles, like, wehave homeless people that have

(26:57):
cell phones for free, they getwireless internet for free.
Our economy, our homeless livebetter than most third world
countries.
All right, it's relative whenyou say our economy is in
shambles and where we're gonnago into a recession, the day

(27:18):
that our homeless people liveworse than a third world country
.
You can come and say something,but they don't.
And that's not a litmus testfor how well the economy is
doing, but it just gives you anidea of how the idea of what is
in shambles, quote and what isnormal.
You can get a litmus test basedoff of that.

(27:43):
What I will say is that when you, when you got to the point
where you had to have dualincome so you had your single
income, you have your dualincome with kids you really saw
that when the American peoplestarted wanting more, it used to
be like, hey, we were happywith the three-bedroom

(28:05):
mid-modern century Brady Bunchhome and it wasn't this huge
house and you didn't have athree-car garage and you didn't
have a huge yard.
It was like, hey, this is whatthe family dwelling was.
Everybody had their assignedroles in their rooms.
Now it became keeping up withthe Joneses.
You had to say, hey, well,so-and-so's family has a

(28:29):
five-bedroom McMansion with ahorse stable up in Milton
Georgia.
They have a farm and they havea helicopter pad with little
statues that spit water.
Um, I gotta have that too.
So what do you need?
You need more money.
You know, I think it was, uh,george Carlin that had that bit

(28:50):
about buying a bigger house toput more stuff.
And then you get so much morestuff you got to buy a bigger
house so you can put even morestuff in the house it was.
It's a great bit.
I recommend you guys look it up.
But um, that's essentiallywhere we're going.
People like you're like, oh, Ineed more stuff, I need more

(29:11):
house, I need and you hear itall the time people, oh, I need
more car, our family's gettingtoo big.
We get, I need more car, so Igotta go get a bigger car.
Like Like, okay, I get it.
Well, how about you just wait?
Or how about?
You know, no one is saying thatyou can't have a big family,
but maybe you should time that alittle bit better.
You know, maybe you should say,hey, why don't we get to a

(29:32):
better place, to where we can?
Um, just my thoughts.
You know I'm not a subjectmatter expert by any means, but
a lot of this is just baddecision-making.
You know people say, hey, Iwant it now, versus I'm going to
delayed gratification, I canwait a couple of years and I can
be in a better position.
I can be a better place than Iam right now, and maybe it won't

(29:56):
impact me waiting two or threeyears before I do something.
Maybe I won't suffer forwaiting two or three years
before I do something.
Maybe I won't suffer for thosetwo or three years.
Maybe I don't have to eat, youknow, ramen noodles for a year
because I made a decision today.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
You know that's a very astute observation, matt.
We are an instant gratificationsociety and that has played
hard into the way consumersconsume, the way that they
actually engage in the idea ofobjectifying stuff over
experiences.
And it goes back to what yousaid about that $400 a night

(30:30):
place being occupied by so manypeople, folks, especially the
younger generation, themillennials and Gen X and those
sorts of people.
They seem to be really dialingin on experiences over things,
and it actually gives me a lotof hope for the future because I
myself I fell victim to theidea of just buying and buying,

(30:53):
and buying and buying, and youknow you know, you know the
amount of things I have andit's's like I think I was trying
to fill a void in my life thatyou know.
I didn't really know what I wasmissing, and I was trying to
fill that void and and achievehappiness through things which
can be a very self-destructivething to do.
You think, well, wait a minute.
I've got the rock star life.

(31:14):
I've got, you know, a huge guncollection.
I've got a you know acollection of music gear that
would make most studios jealous.
I've got the bad-ass truck andthe bad-ass boat.
And you had some coolmotorcycles.
Yeah, and you have motorcyclesand you know you're living like
a rock star and you know you'reyou're doing well, you know, and
you're successful and you thinkwell, oh man, despite all this,

(31:43):
why am I not happy?
Why is my life feel like it'sjust an empty void, even though
you have all these things tofill it with?
And you know, again you begin torealize and this may be even a
deeper conversation than justsimply the economy, but on my
perspective, I'm telling youabout my perspective as a
consumer and buying so much crapover the years that eventually
you go.
You know, I really wish I wouldhave taken some of that money
that I bought those guns with,maybe, and went and you know,

(32:04):
took a cool trip to Rome or, youknow, went to go visit
Australia, or or maybe went on aI don't know a sightseeing trip
in a helicopter or did ahelicopter hog hunt or whatever.
It might be that maybe youwould have done more experiences
with that money, becauseexperiences you can't take away.
Once they're there, it's likewow, you've, you've, you've

(32:26):
provided something wholesome toyour life.
You've used your money forsomething that enhances the life
experience, not just fills what, what that experience should
fill the void of, with thingsthat you know maybe provide you
with some brief satisfaction,but not a long, lasting,
meaningful satisfaction.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
I can agree with you 110%.
And I didn't realize that tillI got older because I, like you,
were very, very similar.
I was like, hey, I want this, I, I want this.
You get to a point you knowwhere your income can support
that because as you're growingup, like I grew up, you know
poor, like I didn't have a lotof.
I wanted a lot of stuff but Icouldn't afford it.

(33:09):
I couldn't go out and get it.
But then you get to a pointwhere you are successful and you
can go out and say, point atsomething and say, hey, that's
cool, I want that.
And just, hey, that's cool, Iwant that.
And just buy it.
Maybe it's a littleirresponsible, but you know, if
the income can support it, whynot?
But like like you, eric, I gotinto a trend of just, you know,

(33:33):
buying and buying and buying andit wasn't really fulfilling
anything.
Then I had my daughter and thenit became hey, what can we do
together for experiences?
What can we experience togetherthat's going to give me more
than just a trinket or a gun ora car or some doodad that I want

(33:54):
?
And it became traveling withher to sports events, wrestling
or jujitsu.
And that is ultimately why.
You know not a lot of peopleknow this, but that's why we
closed Ballistic Inc.
You know Ballistic Inc was.
It was an amazing experience,was an amazing company that you
know I ran, that you know Ericwas a partner with and we

(34:18):
supported all of the you knowYouTube, gun tube content
creators and we did that forabout five or six years.
We did all American products,um, and we did the merch amazing
experience.
We had tens of thousands ofcustomers that we that we
supported by sitting on productthat you guys were gracious

(34:39):
enough to support those contentcreators and and it was awesome.
Ultimately it took up a lot oftime.
Like it's a lot of worksupporting like that many
content creators with thatvolume of of shirts.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
You know, wow, I'll tell you.
You know, it doesn't take aneconomist to figure out y'all
that time is the ultimatecurrency.
We can talk about money and wecan talk about the stock market.
We can talk about the war ofideas, we can talk about the war
of spirituality, we can talkabout this religion, that
religion, this color, that color.

(35:15):
At the end of the day, time isthe ultimate currency.
It is your trade, it is yourcurrency.
It is literally the only thingthat you don't really know how
much you have.
You can look at a dollar figurein the bank account and you can
assign some value to that.
How much time it took you toearn that money, that number in

(35:36):
the bank account.
You can go all right, what canthat money buy me?
What can it do for me?
What thing can it get me?
But at the end of the day, youdon't really know how much time
you really have.
So when you're grinding away atyour nine to five, you're
thinking you know, I got to getthis money to consume, consume,
consume.
And don't get me wrong.
You know America has been madea really unique and great place

(35:59):
by consumerism.
To your effect, matt, you weretalking about that lodge being,
you know, having all the peoplethere.
Same thing with Disney.
All right, I know in the otherpodcast we talked about my trip
to Disney my first time evergoing to Disney World.
All right, I'll put it on foryou.
My first time ever going toDisney World, let me put this
hat on.
Oh, I'll put it on for you.
My first time ever going toDisney World, let me put this
hat on for you.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
Oh, you got the Mickey.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
Mouse ears.
So look, it was the first timeever going to Disney World and
you go in the main gate andyou're dropping 600 freaking
bucks for three tickets just toget in the door.
So if you're talking a familyof three kids and wife and kids,

(36:43):
you're talking $1,000 just towalk in the front door.
Now tell me now, can you assigna price to that experience?
Or can you go, wow, is athousand bucks really worth it?
See, at that point the parkbecomes.
Whether or not you agree withthe woke Disney crap, let's just
put all that aside and justlook at it for what it is.
It is a park where kids can goand feel like they're in a
magical place At the end of theday, get all the fluff away and

(37:05):
just treat it for what it is.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
It is.
A Las Vegas for kids isessentially what that place is.
That's a great way to put it.
It's Las Vegas for kids.
All right.
Can you put a price on the wayyou feel when you're with your
kids in that place?
No, you can say all thewokeness.
Look all that aside.
Can you literally put a priceon the way how happy it made

(37:29):
your daughter when you took her?
Nope, you cannot.
You would pay anything If thatticket was $500, let's say, the
tickets for the adults were $40,but the tickets for the kids
were $800.
The tickets for the adults were$40, but the tickets for the
kids were $800.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
Would you pay $800 to ?

Speaker 2 (37:44):
get your daughter in that park.
I would.
You would Yep Right, becauseexperiences are valuable, right.
Knowledge is valuable right.
When we look at um, you know,like your jujitsu academy,
you're providing more than justsimply some product that someone
can buy a widget You'reproviding a service.
You're providing knowledge andknowledge of power, and people

(38:05):
will spend money on experiences.
They will spend money onknowledge.
I hope they would.
For instance, you know, I do thepower lifting right now.
I've been a power lifter fortwo years.
Yes, I have a trainer and, yeah, I pay James pretty well.
Okay, like, he's not cheap, hecharges, right.
So, but I invest in myself.

(38:28):
I invest in making a betterversion of myself.
I don't know how much time I'mgoing to have left.
Time is the currency.
So, therefore, my investment isin hopefully providing more
time for me to exist on thisworld, and if that means that
I've got to spend some money todo that, well then, what is

(38:48):
money worth if you're dead?
Now I say all of this to getback to the baseline
conversation, and that is thatwhen we look at the way that the
economy is going, I mean, howare consumers really feeling
about what's going on?
Well, just because they may notbe buying widget A, b or C.
Let's kind of talk about thefirearms industry for a minute,

(39:09):
because the firearms industryright now is in a huge downturn.
Right, lots of people arespending way less money on
firearms and ammo.
I mean, we just had Trumpelected, so, of course, anytime
there's a Republican presidentincoming in the presidency, we
always see a slump in sales inthe gun industry, because the
best gun salesmen are Democrats.

(39:31):
So anytime a Democrat getselected, everyone wants to go
crazy because they're worriedabout the way things are going
to go and they go buy a bunch offirearms.
So right now there's a downturnin uh, in everything going on
in the firearms industry and, um, you know, you're going to see
that kind of ebb and flow ofconsumerism go from all right,
well, they're not buying maybe aguns as much anymore, but maybe

(39:52):
they're getting some trainingor maybe they're going to take
on, like I don't know, go drivea tank or fly a helicopter or do
some cool experience.
That's still in the vein ofthat, but just not directly
buying a firearm per se.
Maybe they're going to pay forthat hunt that they always
wanted to go on with theirfamily or something, or maybe
they're going to pay for thatfishing excursion that you know.

(40:14):
maybe they couldn't justify theexpense before, but maybe now
they do, so you may see anincrease in VRBOs, or what is it
?
What do they call?

Speaker 3 (40:23):
the Airbnbs.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
You may see an increase in people going and
taking on experiences.
So just because the economypivots and again I'm no
economist, y'all, I'm justsaying the reality of what you
see in front of you Just becausesomething pivots from one area
of the industry to another,doesn't mean there's still not
money changing hands for goodsand or services, or both, or

(40:48):
either, or.
So it's just an interestingparadigm to consider.
You know, under that paradigm,again, let's go back really
quick, because I wanted tomention something about the
nuclear household, because wewere talking about how the
boomer generation which I hateto say boomer, but that's what
they are.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
They're the boomer generation.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
The late 40s generation had an unprecedented
amount of luxury and wealth andopportunity and just a lucky set
of circumstances that reallyput them in a place to be the
people they are today.
They're very successful today,many of them, as long as they
make decent decisions.
They're in a really good placetoday.
And when we look at the modernfamily unit, let's look at the

(41:31):
millennials and the Gen X nowand look at that as a family
unit.
Okay, guy meets girl and theywant to have a family.
All right Now.
That idea is far less palatableand available to people now
than it was in 1949.
Back in the day it was mucheasier to start a family and

(41:53):
have that sort of American dreamthan it is now.
But let's also look at the typeof standards that people have
now.
Ok, now, this is somethingcrazy.
In fact, my girlfriend and Iwere talking about this.
In fact, last night, I believe,we had this discussion where we
talked about how people'sstandards and what they have for
a partner are far, far blownout of proportion.

(42:17):
Right, you know some guy who isnot really doing so well
financially.
You know, maybe he doesn't havehis shit together, maybe he's
not in shape, maybe he's alittle fat.
You know thinking that he'sgoing to score an 11 and you
know he's going to have thesuper hot girl and that's what
he deserves.
Well, is that the value youbring into the table?
And vice versa.

(42:38):
You know a guy who's got hisshit together, he's in shape,
he's making good money, he'swell established.
You know he's a person that isnot a screw up.
Okay, he's not in trouble notdoing.
You know a high value guy.
Now, is that to say that youknow some girl who is a three at
best?
That three girl has it in hermind that she's going to get the

(43:01):
11 guy, no matter what, and allshe wants is the 11 guy, but
she doesn't want to make herselfat least an eight or nine.
You know it doesn't want toimprove herself.
We were talking about thatparadigm.
How you know, women get theirviews blown way out of
proportion on what they'llaccept in a male partner and
vice versa, men to women.
And again, I'm not claiming tobe some life coach or dating

(43:23):
coach.
I'll give a quick shout out tomy good friend, coach Corey
Wayne.
Now, if you do want to talk toa good dating coach, he's your
man.
Talk to Corey Wayne.
However, corey Wayne will tellyou I think I can say this with
his approval that you have to bethe best version of yourself
that you can possibly be.
You attract what you are andyou are what you attract.

(43:45):
So it's like if someone wantsthe picturesque view of success
and power and strength and loveand a good romantic relationship
and a good life, you've got towork hard to achieve it.
And you're not going to be on alower tier rung of society as a
person and expect to have theworld handed to you.
That's not what capitalism is.

(44:07):
That's not how capitalism works.
Capitalism is the opportunityfor you to create the
circumstances that give you thethings that you want.
And, yeah, you're going to haveto work your butt off for it.
I worked my butt off for 16years producing YouTube content
day in and day out, and workingmy butt off so that I could be
where I am today.
Yep, so those those laurelsthat you don't necessarily rest

(44:28):
on your laurels, you always stayhungry.
You never say, well, I achievedsomething.
Therefore, I'm just going tolay back and just be a slob.
No you're always going to lookfor the next step, and then
those laurels are on laurels areon laurels, and that's how it
works.
You create these layers offinancial security that insulate
you from failure.
I mean, that's how it works,and the older you get, the more

(44:49):
insulated you are.
Then you can kind of sit backand enjoy the fruits of your
labor a little bit.
But you should never besedentary.
You should still kind of alwaysset that next chess piece in
motion.
You have to think that way.
You cannot think of success assimply trading time for money.
If you do that, you're going towind up in a position you're

(45:14):
not going to be happy in.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Well, that's kind of what happened with Ballistic Inc
.
When I was talking about, sayhey, we worked for five or six
years and it went great,spending too much time, I need
my currency back.
We let that one go and we wentwith the Jiu-Jitsu Academy.
It gives me way more time tospend with my family and to have
those experiences and you'rehappier for it.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
Oh yeah, You're way happier for it.
And you're happier for it ohyeah absolutely.
You're way happier for it.
You know, and again I willmention, because Matt and I both
receive disability compensationfrom military service and
there's a lot of people outthere that may draw some
negative view of well, youcollect money from the
government and you're a dependa.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
You hear that word going around.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
You're a dependa and you're a dependa.
You hear that word going around.
You're a dependa, but look, youknow, if you get hurt in combat
, you're a combat MOS, or reallyan MOS, but let's just say,
under the guise of being aninfantry soldier, your body gets
royally f***ed up.
If I'm just being honest here,I mean, look, you get messed up
and you know, yeah, there's acost to that, there's a literal

(46:19):
cost to what it takes for you tohave gotten hurt or messed up
in combat and now you have tolive a debilitated life.
So, yes, we have mechanisms inplace to insulate those veterans
from failure.
Ok, and it's only fair.
I feel like I worked for that,I suffered for that, you
suffered for that, we sufferedtogether, brother.

(46:40):
Oh yeah, you know, and that'snot always the easy thing for
society to cope with that.
Yes, there was some work put in.
There was some blood equity andsweat equity that was put in
for that.
That was not just someone beinggiven something.
No, you earned that.
You gave the price of blood toearn that.
You gave the price of blood toearn that.
Before we go much further in theconversation, I do want to give

(47:03):
a quick shout out to ourfriends at ModernWarriorscom.
When it comes to protectingyourself and your family, having
the right gear matters.
That's why I trust ModernWarriors, your go-to source for
all things tactical.
They've got a massive selectionof firearms, suppressors and
accessories, everything fromhigh-end builds to everyday
carry essentials.
Whether you're a collector,competitor or just looking for

(47:24):
reliable self-defense options,they've got you covered With
over 800 five-star Googlereviews.
Their customer service speaksfor itself and right now you can
save 10% on your first orderwhen you use a promo code
LIBERTY at checkout.
Visit ModernWarriorscom today,browser selection and see why
they're not just another gunshop.

(47:45):
They're your tacticalspecialists.
Remember to use the codeliberty at checkout.
That's modernwarriorscom codeliberty.
Good stuff, really great groupof folks there.
So you know the multiple layersthat insulate you from failure
are really what you're lookingfor and again, this kind of goes

(48:06):
back to us talking about thisfrom a perspective of small
business owner is to havemultiple revenue streams, right,
that ultimately work for youwhen you're not working.
Yep, okay, I'm giving you alittle tip here, y'all.
Okay, I'm trying to drop somewisdom as best I can.
I mean, look, I will becompletely and frankly honest

(48:27):
with you, brothers and sistershere.
I have do not have a freakingcollege education.
I've never set foot in afreaking college.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
I have my whole life, I havewinged my entire existence and
just took the risk.
That is the, that is the axiomof capitalism.

(48:47):
Yep, you can be an ignorantperson.
I mean, let's talk about JeffBezos.
I'm not saying that.
Wow, ignorant person, jeffBezos.
No, he wasn't ignorant, but hewas a person who started from
extremely humble means.
You know, maybe had someslip-ups in the beginning, right
.
But now look at him, he'sgetting his TRT on, he's got his

(49:08):
hot girl, he's got his big bow.
You know, he said screw thehaters, I'm gonna live, I'm
gonna be me, I'm gonna be thebest version of myself.
What did Jeff Bezos do.
He created the best version ofhimself.
He surrounded himself withhimself with the hottest and
greatest and best and mosttalented people and right, the
cream flows to the top and ironsharpens iron, and I don't hate

(49:32):
the man for that.
Anyone who would say, well, jeffBezos is filthy rich, so screw
him.
No, screw you.
Bezos is filthy rich, so screwhim.
No, screw you because youfailed.
You failed to see the biggerpicture, not him.
You cannot say, well, screwJeff Bezos because he's simply
wealthy.
What a smooth brain, low tierstatement for a person to just

(49:53):
say, well, I just hate himbecause I'm not him.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
Right, that's exactly it.
No way, and you and you knowI'm proud of him.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
I don't know him from anybody, but I'm proud of that
because that's the americandream that is the american dream
.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
It's the epitome of the american dream.
You know it goes back to peoplelooking for a crutch on why
they're not successful.
Like, oh, he like, why do youhate him?
Because he's so rich?
That's, that's not a very goodreason to hate somebody because
they have money, like youcouldn't come up with something
better than that.
Um, and you know they're alwayslooking down on themselves.

(50:29):
They have that victim mentalitylike oh, it's because of this,
it's because of that, just getout there and get it done, man.
Like, keep your nose to thegrindstone, as they say there's.
There's so many cliche, you know, sayings that you know you
could say and I'm not going tosay it because they're cliche,
but one of them, when you weretalking about, you know, the

(50:51):
boomer generation.
They were too young to be inVietnam, they were too old to
hit you know the Persian GulfWar, but they were born kind of
in that Goldilocks era of like,not of of missing out on all of
that, but reaping the rewards of, you know the economy at the
time and that that saying likehey, strong times make weak men,

(51:13):
weak men make hard times, hardtimes make strong men.
It's, it's a cycle, and youknow, unfortunately they had
good times.
We were the strong men thatcame out of those good times.
That next generation is theboomers Like they're going to,

(51:33):
like they got.
They got the good times fromour hard, from our hard strong
men.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
So well and well and I and, to be fair, a lot of
boomers did serve in vietnam youknow, because you got to think.
If you're born in the late 40s,I'd put you right at draft age
18 19 look there was a, therewas a big upset over the draft.
There was a lot of, you know,people opposing the draft and
and and protesting the draft.
And you know, look at theirview for a good reason.

(51:58):
Their fathers were probably inthe war.
They probably saw themselves asa group of people who wanted
peace and they didn't want to beinvolved in a war.
They saw what their fatherswent through and their
grandfathers maybe.
Even so, to be fair, yeah, alot of them did sacrifice a lot.
A lot of them did die inVietnam, a lot of them did have
to walk into the meat grinder,and that's unfortunate, right.
But for those who did come outof the other side unscathed,

(52:22):
they had a great deal ofeconomic, you know, boom, I mean
.
And they were very lucky.
And I suppose one day someonewould say the same thing about
us.
Again, as I said earlier in thepodcast, in the show, it's very
easy for a generation to say,well, you don't know what my
generation went through.
You know you kids have it soeasy.

(52:44):
You don't know what we wentthrough because you've already
went through it, the kidshaven't.
So it's really easy to say,well, you kids don't know what
sacrifice is, you kids don'tknow what hard work is.
Well, yeah, of course theydon't, because they haven't been
through it yet.
And I realize that now, atbeing over 40, it's like you
realize that you know they'reright and you're right at the

(53:05):
same time.
You're both right, but it justdepends on when you're right,
like you know where you're at inthat time frame.
as to you know where your mindtends to go, I mean, my favorite
economist, who's wrote tons ofstuff on the economy, is dr
thomas soul oh, the man I lovethomas soul, and you know, in

(53:25):
his youth he was a marxist hewas and I'm talking leftist like
full-blown.
Yeah, a lot of people aremarxists in their youth and only
as they get older do theyrealize, like, how the world
really works and they have moreinformation available to them
and the ones that actually careto overcome their individual
biases about the world beforethem.

(53:46):
Dr Sowell realized, like, waita minute.
He started looking into thedeep and dirty and dark and
going whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hold on here, right, there area lot of fallacies at play here
that must be explained, and heseeked to make it his effort to
explain those things in the mostastute way possible.

(54:08):
And all you have to know aboutDr Sowell's work is to look at
how academia treats Dr Sowellnow.
Now, granted, he has his cultfollowing of people who
absolutely adore him, and, ofcourse, rightly so.
Uh, but look how many of theseso-called academics uh, you know
, oh well, you don't need tolisten to Dr Sowell he, he's,

(54:29):
he's wrong about this, wrongabout that, like so many people
dismiss Dr Sowell.
But that should tell youexactly what you need to know
about the guy's views.
He's damn right on a lot ofthings.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
And whether you study Rothbard or any of those guys,
mises.
I mean there's so many views oneconomy and liberty and freedom
and freedom of association andfreedom of choice.
I mean we could go into a wholenother spill about all of that

(55:04):
in a whole nother podcast.
But it's just so crazy to thinkthat the way that our economy
is viewed and looked at it comesfrom so many different
directions and so many types ofgoods and services and usury and
credit and debasement.
It's mind-blowing when you lookat it from a bird's eye view
and its totality it's justabsolutely mind-blowing,

(55:27):
especially for the averageperson.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
So Thomas Sowell is an absolute gem and he is
onwards of like 90 years.
I think he's like 90 to 94years old he's, and he still
puts out content, like he stillputs out content, um.
So think about this he is aformer marxist.
He's african-americaneconomists that really was more

(56:05):
right-leaning, but at the sametime, he lived through the
entire you know uh, segregationand um racism and pretty much
everything that you could haveexperienced at that age.
And he came out and he isprobably the most prolific uh

(56:28):
writers of equity equity versusequality.
So for someone to experiencesegregation, to experience
racism and to still come out andexplain about equality and
equity and how race isn't reallyat play in that whole thing is

(56:52):
absolutely stunning and it'samazing to hear him speak.
If you really want to watch andunderstand how dialogue, how
public discourse, should work,go and watch some of his debates
.
Where he sits with there'll befour, four people sitting on in

(57:13):
a panel and they're veryrespectful and they really
really get into the meat andpotatoes of like, some guys are
Marxist, he's giving theanti-Marxist position and
they're all respectful.
There's no shouting, there's noyelling, there's no trying to
shut the other person down andit is probably the most

(57:36):
beautiful thing that I'vewatched and they're able to all
get out complete sentences,coherent thoughts, complete
thoughts, before the next personjust chimes in and it's all
very, very good information andit's how I would imagine a
proper debate and ethical publicdiscourse to take place I tell

(58:01):
you if, if every presidentialdebate oh my god, was conducted
in such a manner.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
I don't know if the average person would be able to,
even they wouldn't even watchit because they're looking for
that mudslinging.
They're looking for that, thatsort of Jerry.
Springer like soundbite kind ofvibe, you know it's.
It's more about being liked asa person than it is actually
being, you know, honored andcherished for your economic
policies, your politicalpolicies, your, your moral

(58:26):
policy, even your morals.
I mean, and that's what's socrazy is the political world has
turned into such a, you know,popularity contest.
More so, you know, it's justwho can get the most money and
who can raise the most money andbeat out the other person and
be more likable, which I guesspolitics is about being likable.

(58:48):
But at the end of the day yeah,it's a popularity contest and it
just seems to me that you seeso many figures that really
should be more like Dr Soule interms of their overall views.
We would be in a much betterplace if we had a hundred Thomas
Soule's and a hundred ThomasMassey's I'm a fan of Massey.
I mean we would be in a muchbetter position if economists

(59:13):
and scientists actually, youknow, made decisions in regards
to the economy and sciences thansome people who aren't even
qualified to freaking.
Be a door greeter at Walmart,much less.
I mean, just because they're avery popular door greeter at
Walmart doesn't mean they're,you know, qualified to be making
some of the decisions that theymake.
And I'm not going to sit hereand speak of qualifications.
I'm sitting here giving anentire lecture on the economy.

(59:36):
I'm not an economist, I'm just aperson who just sees it for
what it is and I hope thatpeople maybe agree with me and
see things the way that I do,and I guess there's a sort of a
confirmation bias that's therefor me as a person to go.
Well, I'll put my views outthere and if people agree with
me then I must be right.
That may not even alwaysnecessarily be the case.
I'm willing to accept newinformation and try to see the

(01:00:00):
truth as it unfolds and as theinformation unfolds.
Just because a very popularperson has an opinion on
something that a whole bunch ofpeople agree with doesn't mean
they're right.
It just means that other peoplemight be as misinformed as that
person.
Right, and I'm willing toaccept that I could be that
person.
I'm not ever going to sit thereand say that that I'm the end,

(01:00:20):
all do all on everything Idiscuss.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
Well, in in in Massey's defense he is.
He is the shining example ofwhat the original Congress was.
They were average, normalpeople that didn't have any like
political aspirations.
He ran out as a as really as ajoke.
Like he, not like he was joking, but he was like, hey, I'm just
gonna throw my name in the hatbecause I'm unhappy with the

(01:00:45):
person that's there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
He didn't care if he got elected.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
He was just like, hey , man, I'm here, this is what I
stand for, this is my goals.
And I was like, holy crap, Iwon and they love that guy.
And he had.
I mean, he is what you wouldimagine like just a person with
common sense.
That's in office.
He, he says what the normalperson thinks.
Like you're like hold on, waita second, let's, let's review

(01:01:09):
that, let's look at that againversus just like, uh, being a
yes man, right, you know?
Um, he's caught a lot of flack.
That you know, and that'sreally your job.
Like to catch flack.
Like you're there representingyour constituents and you have
to be true to that.
And if you, you can't just nodyour head and yes, and say yes
to everything.

(01:01:29):
So he's got, he's got myrespect, yeah that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
I agree.
I may not always agree witheverything, uh, congressman
massey has to say, but I willsay I agree most of it and even
the things that I may not seeeye to eye with him on, I
respect his candor and hisapproach to being methodical and
scientific about his views and,more importantly,
constitutional.
Um, that's a big one I.
I really respect Thomas Massey alot.

(01:01:54):
I think he's a really great guy.
Before we wrap up the show, Iwant to give a shout out to one
more sponsor for the show, andthat is Allegiance Gold.
One of the things I've alwaysadmired about President Trump is
that he believes in lettingAmericans be Americans strong,
self-reliant and free.

(01:02:15):
He cut taxes, fought for ourenergy independence and told the
global elites to get lost,because he trusts the American
people to take care of theirfamilies and their future.
And that's exactly what youneed to do right now with your
wealth.
Let me tell you, while themedia spends distractions and
the markets bounce all over theplace, gold and silver have been
quietly climbing, recentlysurpassing $3,300.

(01:02:39):
They're doing what they'vealways done protecting value,
preserving freedom and givingAmericans a hedge against
uncertainty.
You can sit and wait or takethe kind of action President
Trump would respect smart,calculated and prepared.
That's why I always trustAllegiance Gold.
They make it easy to roll overyour IRA, your 401k or your TSP,

(01:03:02):
or make a direct purchase ofphysical gold or silver.
Call 844-790-9-1 or visitallegiancegoldcom.
Forward slash LLP.
That's Lima, lima, papa.
Right now, you can get up to$5,000 in free gold or silver

(01:03:22):
coins with a qualifiedinvestment.
Freedom means protecting what'syours.
Don't leave it to chance.
Check out allegiancegoldcomforward slash LLP.
That's Lima Lima Papa.
For more information You'll seea link down to all of our
sponsors in the description boxbelow.
If you're watching here in videoform, so we do post the video

(01:03:43):
every Monday over on IRACVeteran 8888.
We also have this podcast inaudio form, so I know some of
you are listening in audio form.
If you do want to watch us onvideo form, we do post the video
of this podcast every week.
So tune in 9 am every Monday.
Sometimes I'm late uploadingthe show.
I apologize, okay, butgenerally the show launches

(01:04:05):
around 9 am every Monday,eastern Standard Time.
So we appreciate everyone'ssupport and for checking out the
show and we hope you enjoyedour opinions here today.
Anything else, matt, before wehead on.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
Nope, Great show had a great conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Dude you know, I think we really got in some good
territory on this one.
Oh yeah, we did, I really do,because I feel like you know
this subject is you know I'llend by saying I'll give a little
afterthought as we end the showhere today is that I think that
this subject tends to besomething that is picked apart
in this academic way.

(01:04:40):
So much, you know, people areso quick to go.
Well, what are yourqualifications to discuss the
economy?
What are your qualifications todo this?
Do that, but I think sometimesthat's the wrong approach.
What are your qualifications todo this?
Do that, but I think sometimesthat's the wrong approach.
What are your observations?
What have you observed?
What have you actually seen?
Don't worry about what someperson on the news tells you is

(01:05:03):
happening.
What have you witnessed?
What have you seen that wouldlead you to believe that things
are good and or bad, or both, oranywhere in between?
That would lead you to believethat things are good and or bad,
or both, or anywhere in between.
If you can't physically observewhat's going on with the markets
or how it's affecting yourbottom line as a consumer, or
how it's affecting your bottomline as a business owner, I

(01:05:24):
would say, to take what you'rehearing, maybe with some degree
of scrutiny, yep, Okay, is thatto say that maybe your
investments are going to changein the stock market or your uh,
your overall profile financiallyis going to make some shifts
and changes as you see the needto pivot?
Perhaps, if the market changes,sure, change up your
investments a bit.
Um, you know, that's just be myadvice.

(01:05:48):
Again, I'm not an expert, but Iwould say, just rely on your
observations.
What can you witness, what canyou pay tribute to as something
to hang your hat on, that you'veseen as verifiable evidence to
back up what your heart'stelling you?
That's the most important thing.
Yes, this subject matter can gettorn apart down to the line

(01:06:11):
item.
Sure, it.
Subject matter can get tornapart down to the line item.
Sure, it most certainly can,and there's people way more
qualified than me to have thatdiscussion with.
But I think it's important forthe end, especially the end
consumer, the average everydayperson on the street.
It's important to you know,verify what can you observe and
take that to the bank.
Take what you can observe andturn that into.

(01:06:34):
You know what your overallanswer is going to be for that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Then what you're going to find in the guy living
in the DMV area eating $500 A5Wagyu and drinking champagne on
a daily basis, all on thegovernment's dime.
We're just eating USDA Primeribeye and Costco champagne, so
we're much more in line withwhat you're experiencing.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
And I'll just end by saying I ain't a damn hater.
more in line with what you'reexperiencing and uh, and I'll
just end by saying I ain't adamn hater, okay, like, hey, if,
if you're eating wagyu anddrinking champagne, I don't hate
you by any stretch ofimagination.
I, I myself, enjoy some wagyufrom time to time.
Yes, uh, I'm not gonna, you'renot gonna say I don't.
So, uh, hey, look, if that'syour flavor, by all means enjoy
it.
Uh, have yourselves a great day.
Thanks so much for in, and wewill see you guys on the flip

(01:07:31):
side.
Bye.

Speaker 1 (01:07:34):
Thanks for listening to Life, liberty and Pursuit.
If you enjoyed the show, besure to subscribe on Apple
Podcasts, spotify and anywhereelse podcasts are found.
Be sure to leave us a five-starreview.
We'd really appreciate that youcan support us over on
Ballistic Inc by pickingyourself up some merch and
remember guys, dangerous freedom, have a.