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Welcome back everyone. Last time we were talking about home economics, how the home used to be the center of the economy, the school, the workplace.

and the government of the family all in one. And I said that home economics is really the practical application of decentralization. Well, today...

I want to take that idea further because something is happening right now in the financial world that threatens to make sure nobody ever really owns anything again. It's called the 50-year mortgage. And paired with the new tariff model being pushed under the banner of America First,

We are watching economic policies that guarantee the road to serfdom. The very thing Henry Hazlitt warned about nearly 80 years ago in his book, Economics in One Lesson. So this week's book club recommendation is Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt.

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politicians and bankers are floating.

the idea of a 50 year mortgage as a way to make housing more affordable. But let's be honest, a 50 year mortgage doesn't make a home affordable. It just makes debt permanent.

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When you stretch a mortgage out half a century, you're not making ownership easier. You're guaranteeing that ownership never happens. It's a brilliant trick. Because a generation raised on instant gratification hears, lower monthly payment, not lifelong servitude.

But Henry Hazlitt warned us, quote, the art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate, but at the longer effects of any act or policy. And the long-term effect of a 50-year mortgage is simply perpetual tenancy.

A home becomes like a car lease. You can drive it, but you'll never truly own it. You can live in it, but the bank, and ultimately the state, will always have a claim on it. It's financial feudalism wrapped in patriotic branding.

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Now, the other side of this new economic populism is the Trump tariff model, a heavy-handed, top-down approach that punishes imports to protect American jobs. That sounds noble on paper, but remember what Hazlitt said, the bad economist sees only what strikes the eye. The good economist looks beyond.

Tariffs look like they help American manufacturers, but they quietly raise prices for every American family. They don't protect the worker. They tax the worker every time he goes to buy groceries, building materials, or tools. Here's the irony. While we're told tariffs are about independence, they centralize power even more.

Because when government decides what comes in, who trades, and at what price, it's no longer a free market. It's managed capitalism. Crony capitalism, or something that I like to call crapitalism. It's the same spirit as socialism, just with red, white, and blue paint on

Trump claims that tariffs have generated $2-3 trillion of revenue. But if that's true, then why does our national debt continue to skyrocket? And why did we just have to raise the debt ceiling to once again reopen the Goober Bank?

So when you combine permanent debt with managed trade, you get a nation of renters living under a system of controlled consumption. That's not liberty. That's a modern road to serfdom.

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Here's where home economics returns to the story. Because real home economics, the kind your grandmother practiced, was built on ownership, savings, and productivity. Not speculation. Not credit. The old home economy was decentralized. The home produced food, children, wisdom,

and value. It is the engine of civilization. Then came the wars and we replaced the productive home with a consuming home.

We told women their highest value was in the workforce and told men their value was in their paycheck. We industrialized the family.

And now, after a century of progress, we built an entire society that can't survive a week without its next direct deposit, grocery shipment, or SNAP debit payment.

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Hazlitt warned that every policy that promises short-term comfort ends up producing long-term dependency. That's exactly what we see in the 50-year mortgage. It doesn't solve the problem of high prices, it accommodates them. It tells the average man, you'll never afford land, so we'll just give you a longer chain.

Meanwhile, terrorists create the illusion of national strength while quietly feeding the state's power to dictate what we buy and sell. That's not protection. That's control. Put those two factors together and the pattern is clear. You'll own less. You'll make less.

and you'll depend more. Sound familiar? That's the great reset agenda in slow motion.

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Now let's zoom out.

to view scripture. Genesis 2.15 says, the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. That's the model of dominion, stewardship.

not dependency.

Thou shalt not steal.

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implicitly infers ownership.

can't steal something that's not yours.

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God designed man to build, plant, and own, to till the land, and to provide for his household. But our modern economy rewards debt and punishes savings. It taxes productivity and subsidizes consumption. It praises dependency as equity.

So what's the alternative? Rebuild the household economy. We don't fix national economics with more regulation or longer term loans. We fix it by producing again, by returning to the home as the center of economic life. Grow food, learn trades.

Teach your children how to work, how to save, how to build, how to live debt free. Start small, a garden, a workshop, a family business. The moment your household becomes productive again, you step off the road to serfdom and back on the path to dominion.

Hazlett's lesson was simple. Every act of real economics must look at the long-term effects on everyone, not just the short-term gain for some. When we apply that to the home, we find freedom again, because a free society is built from free households, not enslaved consumers.

So the next time someone tells you about a new economic plan, tariffs, loans, subsidies, stimulus, ask yourself, does it decentralize? Does it strengthen the home?

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Does it free the individual from dependency?

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If not, it's just another chain with patriotic pain. Because as long as men trade ownership for comfort and nations trade sovereignty for control, the road to serfdom will stay well paid.

But if the home rises again, the decentralized debt free productive home, then freedom can take root again.

one household at a time.

Let me know your thoughts, y'all comment down below. If you're on the Fountain app, you can comment, can dialogue and have a discussion there. I hope this is getting you thinking today and look forward to seeing you all again very soon. Bye for now.