The Forgotten Reason Real Estate Has Built American Wealth for 250 Years | Ep 132

James
Well, happy two hundred and fiftieth birthday, America. Yeah, we made it.

Jessi
Yay.

James
So good. Such babies. So awesome. Such babies. Well, that is kinda true relative to other nations, but it feels like a long time to me. And as such, this is a 4th of July podcast. And my goal is for this not to be fluff, but to actually be like genuine, go deep, talk about America, freedom, responsibilities, all that kind of stuff on the Furlo Capital Real Estate Podcast where we dive into the intricacies of passive real estate investing and the freedoms that have enabled us to do that. And our mission is to equip people to invest wisely.

Jessi
both property and people who live in this blessed United States.

James
Um, so that together we can build wealth while improving housing. I'm James and this is my American wife, Jessi.

Jessi
Yeehaw gosh, is that what it means to be American? No, like I I don't know how why country and American goes together. Cowboys or American things of America, I feel like. This is like totally a tangent, but There's like the all-American, like military serving my country, but then there's like the Yeehaw Cowboy rancher rodeo.

James
Well, so I I hear there are military folks in all other countries Soas like I when I think about cowboys, I don't know if I think there were cowboys in Mexico.

Jessi
Yeah, yep.

James
Maqueros. Maqueros. Cool, cool. But I also feel like that was somehow different than like Yeah, like rodeo. Rodeo, country.

Jessi
Yeah, it was more like rancher as opposed to like cowboy

James
I don't know. I don't know.

Jessi
I think of like Wild West.

James
It's all good. You know, like developing the country and moving west and looking for gold, all the stuff. All the things. Yeah. I'm I can get behind that. Yeah. Well there's there's a lot of American ingenuity spirit type of stuff. Subculture. It's it's all good. But one of the most radical things watch this transition that the US did differently than a lot of other countries is enable the idea of owning land.

Jessi
Oh.

James
For pretty much everybody. Sure. It's pretty awesome.

Jessi
Do other countries not do that?

James
Well, I guess I just assume that other countries do not do that. So we're talking about this. So I broke this thing into uh four parts. Told you.

Jessi
This isn't just uh seven things about the okay, here we go. That the Fourth of July taught me.

James
It's not just shooting off fireworks. Yeah, no. Um I mean we are gonna do that too. But um yeah, so so I want to talk about what kind of how that started. Because back in 1776, when this place was started, again, two hundred and fifty years ago. It wasn't just a political thing that went down. It was also economic. Right. Actually, that was a huge driver of it was this whole taxation without representation was like a piece of it.

Jessi
Yeah, it was like the whole driving point I feel like for yeah I mean it was pretty significant.

James
Yeah. Yeah yeah totally. And um and actually uh Lockheed uh Lock, yeah, I think that's how you say his name. Um before Jefferson changed it up, the the line used to be life, liberty, and property. You could the Instead of the pursuit of happiness.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
And so Jefferson.

Jessi
Liberty and property.

James
Dang, yeah. Right. That was like that was what it was about. That you had the rights to pursue those things. Um because uh land ownership was just it worked slightly differently in England. And uh but the big thing about land ownership is that it it provides self-determination. Right. There's no king, there's no landlord, there's no permission for the most part. And that's what people like, you know, you have your own house. Like, Ben, if I want to build something, You can do it.

Jessi
Your own rights to do what you wanted.

James
No, you want to land. Change out some fixtures, cool. You want to paint? Cool. In theory, you want to build something, have other permits, like you can do it. Like there it allows for There's just a sense of, oh, I can quote do whatever I want.

Jessi
Yeah, but initially I imagine those all a bunch of those infrastructures didn't exist. Oh like obviously there weren't like HOAs and Oh dude, thankfully.

James
Well, so here's what's interesting, right? When the Homestead Act of eighteen sixty two was passed, it you could get 160 acres after you spent five years of improvement on it. So they'd give you 160 acres and say if you spend five years making it quote better, which I don't fully know what that meant.

Jessi
It's yours or building stuff on it.

James
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so they actually gave, we're gonna say gave away 270 million acres. Went f which is about ten percent of the entire US.

Jessi
Who the government?

James
The government, yeah. Because they were like, We want to uh we want to inspire, we want to enable, we want to own the land Yeah, because that was kind of it was just government, it was just unassigned. Oh. And unassigned equals, yeah, the government has it essentially. Yeah. And so the government's job was to protect that that deal, not to just broker it. And um not to be the arbiter of it. Obviously things have gotten complicated just in the last two hundred and fifty years. You know, it's not quite as like It is definitely not Wild West.

Jessi
Sure.

James
There's lots of rules. Anymore. There could still be some of that.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
Um, so again, this was different because in England Property was often descended through a aristocracy. Right? You had land barons and and that kind of thing.

Jessi
Yeah, if you came from that family, you were part of the ownership

James
Family ownership of like an estate. Man, it was just it was super hard.

Jessi
Yeah. Getting like purchasing land if you didn't have probably but I have a but I have a hunch it was just the problem

James
that like England specifically dealt with is they just didn't have a lot of it physically. Sure. And so It was already divided up. Yeah. Yeah. Whereas the US that was it was wide open wide open. So it's like, man, we can we can get after this. And to a large part that's still True, though that's obviously getting harder in bigger cities because everyone owns everything. Sure. But um it's still a thing. Um yeah, and so the deed that was um in some ways creating the deed was this declaration of independence for individuals. Um, which I let was as opposed to like peasants back in the day, uh, where they had like it was the same soil, but it was just a completely different relationship to their future. So you would have these land barons who then hire peasants and they just like it. They worked it, that was their job, and they would get maybe a fraction of whatever the pro like the proceeds or the the fruits of it. But like there was no there was no ownership component to it. And no hope of ownership because you never got paid enough to even remotely do it. And there wasn't a lot of it that was like, even if you could, it's not for sale

Jessi
So once it was in the United States, did that um generational or familial ownership kind of continue at all? Like s there some of that still exists where we can like will our properties to children and grandchildren.

James
I think the big thing is there's a lot, A, there's a lot more land, more options. B the price of land to your income was a lot closer back then, even today. And I would say C, there was this mindset of, oh no, if you wanted to get it, you can do it. Like work hard, save up. Totally be yours. You can get alone. Make it all happen. Like there's a desire to do it.

Jessi
Yeah, that that also was one of the whole premises of like Leaving Europe, coming here was like we're our own country, we're our own selves, we set our own parameters. And part of that is we have we own our own Yeah. Land and company and freedoms and whatever.

James
Yeah, I remember one of the things on our honeymoon we went to Paris and People dress super nice, remember that?

Jessi
Yep.

James
But one of the comments that someone made, well they're like, well, yeah, but they're not buying houses.

Jessi
Right.

James
And they don't actually have nice cars.

Jessi
So they live in tiny apartments with no cars.

James
So they invested in their clothes and eating out and lifestyle stuff as opposed to inland because it's just not a thing. Right. And and that was strange. Yeah. And it was like, I guess that makes sense. You just prioritize different things. Yeah, totally. All right, part two. There are three freedoms that real estate requires, or at least investing requires. Number one is you gotta have this should be no shock, the freedom to own Yeah. Okay, so that's property rights, right? It's recorded, it's enforceable, it's transferable. This is something I've got some friends, they live in Uganda, and it is causing a massive headache because they don't have that

Jessi
Yeah.

James
Level of property right protection. As a matter of fact, we have title insurance.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
And that exists because we take it seriously. And they don't. Like I kid you not. They are currently going to the upper echelons of the government to try to resolve this property issue because there's one guy he's like trying to it's like there who's sharing with me uh there's like 40 different Landowners that he's like he just go in and be like, oh yeah, I just leased this. Like that's not yours to lease.

Jessi
Um whom?

James
Yeah. And well he'll be like, no, no, no I'm sorry, he will lease it to someone else as if he owns it.

Jessi
Uh-huh.

James
And then they come in and they start working the land and the actual owners come out like, uh what you doing? But they don't have an infrastructure for handling this. I heard it. Outside of like you gotta take it to court. And that judge, turns out, is friends with that dude who's causing the trouble. And like again, it's we have this infrastructure that's set up And um yeah, apparently too, I was reading there's a stat that there's nine point three trillion dollars of what they call dead capital in developing nations. And these are assets that people hold, but they can't legally leverage or do anything with. And and that's a similar thing like uh where you'll see it where like there uh another guy So uh also Uganda. He bought it, but can't quite he bought it, paid money for it, but he still can't quite develop it because it's going through this okay, now it is actually yours process. Weird. It's just very like getting it recorded is even a whole process. Or at least getting others to recognize it. Recording's a weird, like that's a strange. Yeah. Uh not a thing. Freedom number two that real estate investing requires I hear I love this one. It's the freedom to fail. Actually, this is important. So we have bankruptcy law, which means that you can lose everything and try again.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
Which is like which is kind of crazy. So in a lot of countries there's what they call like debtor's prison or you get permanent shame because you went bankrupt. Sure. And I mean we talked about you read about this in the Bible where it's like, man, you get in a debt, like they literally throw you in jail until you can pay it off, which you're like

Jessi
Uh like how does that work? You're not actually money. Or you're an indentured servant for the rest of your life.

James
Right. That's one of those things. Whereas no, in the US is like, no, if you dig too big of a hole. It's cool. No one's going to let you borrow money for a while, but we're willing to wipe the slate clean and start over. And that's that's a huge deal. It allowed it that means that you can take a risk. You can try stuff. Because yeah, worst case scenario, I gotta wait seven years before I can start over.

Jessi
That's an interesting perspective. It it in a way That's what I'm going for. Yeah, in a way it seems very lenient and almost almost like Oh, why would you want to do that? Like people. But it's also like, Noah, it gives people a chance. Like, right. There's there's this concept of like We realize this is difficult and this is hard. You're gonna invest in it. You're gonna put your life and work and energy into it, and you may fail. And that's okay. The goal is like to to keep building, to keep growing, to keep improving.

James
To keep trying to do that.

Jessi
Just like weird.

James
Yeah. You want to by having that safety net, it's um you're willing to take those risks. True. Yeah, you're willing to fail. I think that's I think that's huge. And that is one of those, I don't know if it's uniquely American, but it's very American in in how that works And I think there's a lot of high net worth individuals, if you talk to them, uh, they'll have some sort of failure that they've gone through and that they've learned from and like And it's cool. Again, there's there's not necessarily shame around it. As a matter of fact, like people want to hear those stories and that helps. We you hear that. Some people like they go, be vulnerable when you're sharing. And then some people have taken it to the other extreme and like they all they share is the bad stuff. And you're like, okay, like Yeah. Okay. Sorry, one last thought.

Jessi
What it makes me think of is like inventors or inventions as well. And that concept of like you're gonna have whatever it is, thousands of failures before you hit that success, because it takes work and effort and energy, but we've we've set up our systems to encourage that and to push people to to try it and to fail. And To get better.

James
Totally. Yeah. Absolutely. Uh freedom number three is the freedom to choose your counterparty. I think this is important. So you can create contracts with someone else and those are enforced by courts, not necessarily by kings. And uh and you can choose who your tenants are, you can choose who your partners are, you can choose who your lenders are Uh you can choose your exit strategy on like who am I ultimately gonna sell this place to? Uh within legal limits for all the stuff. Um and you can even choose how you're going to hold title, whether or not it's an LLC or a trust or personally, whatever. There are A tons of different ways that you can structure things and who you work with that I think enable this thing to work. You're not just forced to to head down a single track. Um there are some countries where the government can just simply take the property.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
They can change the terms or reassign which

Jessi
I mean that exists in the United States.

James
Yeah, we have eminent domain and we'll talk a little bit more about those kind of things in a little bit. But at least in that one, it's like you gotta pay more fair market value for it. Whereas there are other countries. Um it's funny, there's one I was in Indonesia and we were in a village and the village had a really valuable resource that the government didn't know about. And they were like You gotta keep your mouth shut because if the government finds out about this, they're just gonna take it over. Wow. They don't care. And they'll just they'll just kind of displace everybody and be done. And again, I All my examples are Ugandan because I was there back in February. True. That was another example where there was a tribe. They were they were gold miners and the Chinese were like, hey, we wouldn't mind having this gold. And so the government's like, cool, your land, go for it. The Chinese just came in with big trucks and tractors, kicked everybody out, and they were like, Oh, I guess this isn't our land. And now they were like, now they're in trouble and the the people who we're visiting are trying to help them figure this out, navigate this new reality of yeah, what this living, this not only was it your like what you did to earn money, but it was also where you lived, not an option anymore. Totally displaced. And we don't we don't have to that degree here. And so um now obviously some things can happen Again, like that's the whole eminent domain gets in there type of stuff, but um not nearly to that same crazy extent.

Jessi
It sounds so corrupt. On some level. But maybe that's just because I'm comparing it to the US. And it's like No, I would put that.

James
I would put that in the not right, corrupt. Right. Well that and that's the thing, right? Because that is our I I hear what you're saying. It does definitely feel that way, but that's part of that's our culture. We ownership first. Ownership trumps everything else. What did they say? Ownership is or possessions, nine-tenths of the law, right? That's the whole like That's that saying kind of is rooted in that. And so when we hear that other stuff, we go, What that's wrong? Even though there are totally other cultures and countries where it's like, no no no, it's all collective, like we don't actually own anything.

Jessi
And If you think about it, like the original colonies coming in and taking land that people were already on, also like we have his history there to do.

James
Yeah. But at least we weren't the government coming in. And like we were foreign invaders, you know. Sure. That's a different deal. That's a it's a little different. It's a little different. Consuring different language. Which is I mean, yeah Which is also a thing, but totally different topic.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
Uh yeah. So it's just interesting. Like, but those are the freedoms that uh that help, right? The um the freedom to own, the freedom to fail, and then to choose your own kind of party, who you're gonna do business with. Okay, part number three. Uh so what does this all mean? Right? And then we're gonna talk about part four is uh like responsibility um for it. But anyways, what this all means is that the Um what this means is that you want to usually we'll treat real estate as the vehicle, but really real estate is this right. that um that we have. So instead of thinking of as like, oh it's just this it's this investment that I make to uh you know to hit financial freedom, to grow my wealth, whatever, like and realistic the way I'm doing it, it really goes like Owning real estate is a fundamental piece of the United States. And um and I don't know if we have that like same side of uh respect. And so that was those rights. They require defense. Like we gotta stand up for those rights. They also require stewardship, I think is important. And even if you're a passive investor, to some degree, it means you're delegating stewardship. Which is fine and it's good, but you just gotta recognize like yeah, that's what I'm like it's all undergirded by this like fundamental uh And you think that's more so with property and land than like other investments that you might make? Yeah, I think so. Like owning like owning stocks. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that feels it's just different. Land is not a little bit. Like you're stewarding it, but land

Jessi
Well, often I think the difference is like the land is being used for other purposes, like people are living on it, or there's a business on it.

James
Yeah.

Jessi
Or it's producing some sort of resource. And so it's not just like this nebulous thing that's out there. Like it genuinely affects people's lives. What you do with it affects people's lives, which I you could say with other resources too.

James
Sure. But there's just a Lens just feels different. Yeah. I don't know if I I if I think I had time, I could put my finger on it. Yeah. Love to hear that in the comments on uh Why why you think it's different? Okay, uh what this also means is that it has land and investing has had a historical hedge on inflation. If you think about it, hard assets, they preserved their wealth across every crisis since 1776. Like it continues to go up. What was the there's a stat That I found it was the medium price of a home in nineteen forty was uh like two hundred nine thousand dollars. That doesn't sound right. $2,900? That might be right. If you include the entire US. I have a West Coast bias. So I'm like and today it's like $420,000. Like it's substantial. And again, that's not just appreciation, I mean it is, but it's like it's this the the system is set up to preserve land value. And and so it does. And that's one of the reasons why it is a hedge. Now, is it a perfect hedge against inflation? No. Uh, but you know, it but it varies, but it definitely is trended with it.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
Um, which is cool. The other um another thing that actually means is that there there are second-order threats that can erode that that right and that ownership. So like rent control is one that causes a problem. It it it goes against this right of ownership. Because now The government's stepping in and saying, no, we're not actually gonna let you manage it the way that you want. And sometimes for good reason, totally get it, and rent control is one where I actually think it goes against what they want it to do, but whatever. Uh we do have the imminent domain, I think is another one.

Jessi
Um there are some zoning that's what my head went was like zoning law sounds like that because they're They are restricting how you can use the property.

James
Yeah, which again, I think I think a lot of these rules are based in good ideas. Implementation can sometimes not be right, and I think sometimes People can be overzealous on what they're trying to do. But like that's the idea of like, well, we don't necessarily want a gas station on every single corner. Maybe just certain ones. I totally get it. But also cool is you can apply for exemptions. And that's totally a thing. And um and I've see those happen all the time. Unless you're a church trying to build in a country, then it's not gonna happen in Oregon. But that's a problem they're gonna have to deal with. Um so but yeah, so uh let's see what else. Oh, um Yeah, so uh I thought I had one more, but I don't. Um Yeah, and I th again I just think it comes back to Like these aren't just interesting policy conversations and debates. Like these are rooted in this fundamental part of what makes America America is the right to own and to have the Wild West, the cowboy, do what you want. within limits. And I think setting those limits and defining them, that's where the the whole argument is. I do think we are There are people who fundamentally disagree with that. They don't think there should be any owners of land and they think it all should just be public. It's like air and water. We all need it. Sure. Maybe you got a charge to provide it, but you can't say no to somebody. And so the easiest way to do it is to say, nope, we're gonna have like with water, cities. Own all that. And yes, they charge to deliver it because it's not free and they've decided to do it that way instead of through taxes, which is just a choice that they made. And I've heard the arguments of like, well, land ownership should be the same way. Where we let some sort of central organization own it all because it is an absolute right and necessity to have a place to live. Therefore we shouldn't let individuals profit off of it. It should all be for the collective Good. So I've but I'm like, I'm not sure.

Jessi
There's definitely a distinction there between like land and housing.

James
I yes.

Jessi
For sure.

James
Also true. Also, because it's like very neutral.

Jessi
If you have land and you're developing it, like yeah, it's it's interesting. Like who benefits from that? Providing housing for people, which is Some would argue a basic right and a need.

James
Some do which they're not wrong, but it doesn't necessarily

Jessi
Is probably I to me dude this is necessary.

James
This becomes a slippery slope really quick. Yeah, 'cause you go, fine, that's a right. Isn't internet connection a right? I don't know. The world sure works off that way. Yeah. Is driving and transportation a right? Sure. Food, is that a right? Sure. I like clothing.

Jessi
Yeah. And and I I tell your what you're alluding to, but not directly saying, is like There's a scale of quality within each of those as well.

James
Yes.

Jessi
You know, so it's like, do you get the most high-speed internet or do you just get the basic? Do you go back to dial-up? Or it's like, do you get organic? f you know farm grown veggies or do you get canned green beans which are the worst manufactured yeah chemical and laden you know so it's like Ah man, okay, even if you did allow for certain you know, rights or Yeah

James
I think the other perennial debate is Medicare. That's another thing. Healthcare is a big one. Yep. Healthcare is huge. And like where do those rights fall? But again, the United States historically has been like, nope, it's individual, personal responsibility. That's how we're doing it. Interestingly, that wasn't true for education. Right. Which, uh, okay, I I'm gonna get this right because I just read it. Education used to be privately done, you're on your own, until after the Civil War. And that was one of interesting, one of the changes or one of the movements, I guess, that um it wasn't Lincoln. I mean he kicked it off, but it was whoever comes after him. Number 17. Um his VP. Uh they really like when when states were coming back in, part of what they did was like, yeah, we're gonna make schools public and make it available to everyone because part of it was It wasn't necessarily indoctrination, but they just realized the value of getting everyone on the same page and creating that shared culture was super important. But yeah, before then it wasn't uh wasn't interesting. Okay, part four, responsibility. This is important. And that's I often talk a lot about that. Like freedom, you have to pair that with responsibility. And I think that's super, super important. And um and so the founders they didn't just hand out those deeds. Remember we were talking about that uh what was it called? Um the Homestead Act of 1862. Well, no, you had to improve the land. And if you didn't, you didn't get the claim.

Jessi
And and so I think Did they kick you off of it or you just didn't get to own it?

James
Uh yeah, I don't know. Both. Both. Probably depends on the situation. They were and that other person would be responsible for removing you. Of course you wouldn't care if you didn't if you weren't improving it or doing anything on it. You're like, okay, whatever. Um, I guess some speculators would care. But again, like uh the freedom With stewardship is is the combination that works the best.

Jessi
The quote in Spider-Man is just like rattling around in my brain. With great power comes great responsibility, something like that.

James
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Uh yeah, I think that's that's I think that's true. And I think with great freedom is that same you have to pair those two things together. Uh it's really important. Within reason for all of it. Like hopefully that's understandable. We're not talking about absolute freedom, that doesn't exist. And we're not also talking about absolute responsibility. That's unreasonable. So what does responsible real estate investing look like now? Um it means being a good landlord. Um it's not a charity. But there's that stewardship piece. Like you want to take care of the people who are living there. I think that's one of the reasons why we have people who are making statements about housing's a right and we shouldn't just publicize it. Sure. Publica publicize it

Jessi
Publicize.

James
No. Make it public. Make it shared. Common. Public eyes it?

Jessi
Public eyes? No, it's publicized. Well, no, that's publicized.

James
That's a different thing. Um Uh also you gotta maintain your assets, right? That's the that's that's important. And so take care of the people who are living it, take care of the asset itself, and ideally, selecting good operators. Um and honoring their footage your role as a passive investor as well, I think is um is important. And I think anyone who just extracts without reinvesting their mortgage, like they're mortgaging their future and they're not stewarding well. I think that's important. And we've seen Both landlords and investors in this area over the years were like, Yeah, you get in trouble for that and you get a bad name and that's why they tried to pass a whole bunch of rules. Which I don't know, I get I would love it if we lived it where that was always the mindset of like, man, I wanna do what's best regardless of what's written. That's not the case. So we come in and we uh we like we create these deterministic rules It's very interesting, just kind of philosophically, like when you talk to someone who what's an example? Um, someone wants to get in shape. Mm-hmm. Okay. There's like you can go down the the the route of, okay. I'm gonna make for you this exact meal plan, eat all of this. I'm going to make for you a workout routine. I'm gonna tell you when to sleep. And like you can you can c corral them with all of these rules and go, now you need to follow it. Or you inspire them to say, man, your life is going to be so much better if you're healthy, you're going to live longer, you're going to hang out with your kids, you'll be able to do these different activities. And and you don't actually give the prescription on how to do it. You You change the mindset, and then they're gonna naturally is it gonna are they gonna eat absolutely perfectly? No, but they're gonna eat better, they're gonna exercise more, they're gonna get their sleep because they want that thing. As opposed to someone, and we see this with our kids, where we'll set up rules and they're like, ah, this is the worst. It's like that and extrinsic or intrinsic motivation is and I would I would love And unfortunately, and I don't I just don't know how to solve it, the way our system currently works is the only leverage is to create those outside rules.

Jessi
Parameters.

James
Which is that was like that's Well that was what I loved about the education piece, right? It was like, hey, we're gonna grow these kids from little kids to when they're older to like Productive citizens. And I feel like we've gotten which is hard because different people have different priorities and that's That's the balance of the United States. Like we're okay with saying, yeah, I get that that's important to you. Not important to me. Sure. Don't teach my kid that. I'll take care of it or whatever. Yeah. Just getting through the whole should be able to choose your school to go with one that aligns with your values, but that's a different soap box. Thankfully we had the freedom to pay money to Send them somewhere else. Send them where we want to send them. Yeah. It's uh it's very complicated. And that's and I actually have a hunch over the next 250, next 250 years, it's gonna just gonna get more complicated. Yeah. And part of it is because We're just creating these rules to try to corral and as as values change and dra drift over time, um Those rules are gonna drift with it and I don't know.

Jessi
It's an interesting It is super interesting. It what would be fascinating, this is a totally different topic, but as long as it's America based, we're good. Yeah, super interesting to Guess, you know, just suppose, like, okay, looking ahead out into the future, another 250 years, like what would property law look like or ownership look like or stewardship, like knowing that more and more resource resources will be taken up or used or there won't be as much land available, you know, like at what point does it hit that tipping point?

James
Yeah, I um So the problem with that type of thinking and what you gotta wrap your head mind around is that it's not a static market. Right. It's dynamic. Like you you're headed down the track of like, well, what if technology and transportation stay also stays. Or if your level of consumption or energy consumption all stays the same, it's not going to. Yeah. Like I can definitely imagine a future. Where it takes oh the we talked about this, oh my gosh, it was it was weeks ago. We were talking about how remember information it used to travel at the speed of horse. And then a new technology was invented, the telegraph, and it was almost instant. Yeah. Right? And and it changed everything. W within the next 250 years, we're going to have something like that. I don't know what, both in terms I mean communication is already pretty stinging fast. Sure. But I think there's gonna be another level of it. I think there's gonna be another level for transportation. As well, I think there's going to be another level for energy consumption. Yeah. I was listening to another podcast and they were talking about uh nuclear power and the the inventions and the improvements that are going on there. I it is not without outside the realm of possibility that we all have many nuclear power plants sitting in our house. That's powering electric vehicles and everything else. And like we're just like, yeah, no, we don't do solar anymore. We don't need to. And and it's not the power plants from yesteryear, like they don't have the same issues, problems, whatever. Like that will very or or whatever. It's like you have one in a block because I forget what it was. Like they were talking about the size of it. It's not very big. Like, yeah, power's like 5,000 homes for years and years. Like it's wild. You're gonna have that kind of stuff. And you just be like, yeah, it's gonna change so much. And we're gonna have Oh man, I hope in the next 250 years vehicles that fly. And and so imagine this was the whole back to the future thing, right? Where it was like or Whatever, whole bunch of them. Yeah. Star Wars, I think, also messed with it. Like right now everything's in 2D. We're all in the same plane. You know, imagine you add a man, the fast cars, they're 250 feet. Highways in the air. That's on high enough. They're a thousand feet in the air, medium speeds, this speed, and like and you can suddenly go places directly so much faster, whatever.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
And I also have a hunch we are going to trend more towards corporate ownership and and I I actually what I actually see happening as well is a big spread between the haves and the have nots. That I could see where the wealth distribution becomes to way more uneven. People who are doing well, man, like life's gonna be great. They're gonna love it. They're gonna like Things are great. And the people who are struggling, I think, are really gonna struggle. And as a nation, we're gonna keep trying to bounce around, trying to figure that out. And we're going to do it through these extreme ex ex external rules that try to put people up. I would not be shocked if in 250 years we have some sort of univer universal basic income. And you're gonna have a large percentage of the population like, yep, it's great. I throw on my VR headset, get my entertainment, and then I use part of my U-bit to have food come to me and It's all good. And there'll be some of us who go, oh my gosh, you call us a life. And I'm like, yeah, it's great. I don't have to work. I can just live, entertain myself. Everything's great. And then I think you'll have another part of the population where it's like, no, no, no, we're off traveling the world doing stuff. And they don't even care about the UBit because they own other assets and have and are able to use those to pay for the things. And you'll have a bunch of other people who are working. And Um, that's my very uneducated guess. Strange. 250 years is so far out in the future. I think the US will still be around. I will say that. I I um In a couple weeks, we're going to talk about the Civil War because I'm finishing up that book. But I've now that I've I think we'll still be around. I think. I also would not be shocked to find out that we're three separate nations. Where you have the two coasts are their own things, and then you do have this middle block that might actually be one, two, or three different uh countries. But I feel like we've seen that model in Europe and we're all like, no, like I mean it's better together, man. And so um I'd be shocked if that happens. Plus I'm like physically, how does that actually happen anymore? Like again, back in the day it was like everyone to arms. Like dude that's not a thing.

Jessi
That's not really a thing.

James
Drone wars everywhere just trying to like I just I don't I don't like I don't f tangibly physically see how that can happen, but I'm also missing some technology. So I just don't know. Man, I would love Star Trek Future, which I get is actually like now that I've watched it older, I'm like, man, this is highly political and and relational. And just they take a very Like took a very uh collectivist stance on it, everything I think about. I could see us going in that direction as well It's very un American. But it's more socialist kind of. Yeah.

Jessi
It's very benevolent.

James
It's uh it's utopian in the sense that Yeah, none of us are getting paid, but we're still gonna work hard and do our rules because we believe in doing that, which I'm like I've that's historically never happened.

Jessi
Doesn't, yeah.

James
But that's part of that education piece. If you could change the mindset. I mean, we do it within our family, right? Our kids don't get paid And we still have them do chores and for the most part they like it. And I mean we do get income from other sources, but within the within the household, we don't get paid to do dishes, but we're like, hey, this is good for everybody. We're doing it. So like The model does exist. The question is does it exist at scale? And so far the answer has been no.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
I don't know, maybe something changes.

Jessi
Well, because you never get 100% participation. And as soon as you have that one person who's like, I don't have to do this, that just creates this like turmoil. Because then There's people on the margin who are like, well, if they don't have to do it, I don't have to do it. And I'm not sure what I'm saying.

James
So that's what I'm like. I think you gotta have some sort of if you choose to participate at your level that you're able to like, man, you can have anything you want.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
We can provide it all. Cause we somehow have figured out Star Trek style, how to manufacture everything. And if you don't, yeah, no, you don't. Yeah. And so that's your incentive.

Jessi
Sure.

James
Maybe I don't know man.

Jessi
This does into like human rights though. And then it's like you can't kick someone out. Like there's basic Necessities. They have to have them.

James
Yeah, which will constantly be escalating.

Jessi
Yeah.

James
Oh man. Wow.

Jessi
Um interesting.

James
Where was I?

Jessi
That did go deep.

James
That's what we're going for. Um oh I okay, so we've talked about all these things. There have been historical issues with everyone getting to participate. There's been redlining. I think which was back in the day, uh I think I believe this was lender related. They would put red lines on maps and be like, we don't do loans to to these sections of the neighborhood or to these people. Yeah. Groups and not good, we've been trying to stamp that out. Mm-hmm. I think it's been fairly successful. I'm sure that's not 100% true, but I think it's been pretty successful Um there's restrictive covenants. Those are within neighborhoods saying you can and can't do certain things. Sure. Um and Uh yeah, there there just have been. There have been issues and and for the most part I think like the anti disc anti-discrimination rules have been good. I think not for the most part. I think they have been good. And there are probably places where they can go further. And uh I know me as a company, there's certain things where I go, yeah, no, no, we don't have to. But we're going to. And um and I think that's the I mean ultimately we try to rule by we try to run by the golden rule. Well, what would I want to happen in my situation? Yeah. And so That's a mindset thing. So 250 years man. Yeah!

Jessi
Yay!

James
I like it And um and I think that personally individual ownership is way better than centralized control. Not perfect, not saying it is, but I think it's way better than that. And I think the deed and the ability to own is one of the most powerful financial documents, instruments that um that we have. And it's super important and that it that just helps with that mindset piece of it. And um and I think that uh When you have freedom, it's important to recognize the responsibility and the stewardship that comes with it and to treat it well. Uh, because if you don't, what's there's another quote by another founding father? It's like you can You can have your freedom if you can keep it. That's a Benjamin Franklin quote, right? You can how does it something about, oh my gosh, I'm butchering it. Yeah. You can have your freedom if you can keep it or Something like that. That's that same thing. Yes, freedoms are awesome. And if we steward it well, we'll get to keep it. And if we don't, it's gonna be taken away. So and I think unfortunately there's been some bad actors, which is why we watched it erode over time. But that's okay. So my call is to steward it to better and steward it well. Um and pass on your portfolio and this freedom and this awesome country we have to the next generation and to teach them to respect it and understand it so that they will continue to Sure that will take care of people. So there you go. So with that, happy birthday, America. Happy 4th of July, and thanks for listening. Have a great week.