Episode Details

Jonathan Drake is back after a week off building sets for his daughters' homeschool production of Fiddler on the Roof, plus a look at the cedar patio furniture coming together in his shop. Then it's on to the finish of Proposition 5 in Lysander Spooner's poverty essay: why free banking would flood the market with credit and drive interest to the lowest possible rate, how self-employment would force employers to compete for workers, and why monopolies only survive with the state building barriers to entry. From there, Drake works through Spooner's three reasons bank credit beats store credit, including what buying at cash prices really means, and asks whether money needs a central standard at all or whether Bitcoin could serve as both the store and the measure of value. He closes on the modern tax burden, what Americans could build with double their take-home pay, why you can't vote your way out of a system you never voted in, and AI as a human extender. Next week: Proposition 6.