Are You Investing in America’s New Wild West?

Andy Snyder|February 25, 2021

Oh boy… it was a short night. We barely had time to warm the bed.

It’s the little things that keep us up.

Last night, it was the do-gooders in charge of local zoning. They’re pushing a new ordinance that would require our farm to get a permit for the things we’ve been doing all along… entirely within the law.

It’s more dollars out of our pocket… more time off our hands… and more liberties lost to a fella who’s funded with the money he takes out of our pocket.

It’s more proof that we don’t own the land. We just buy the right to sleep on it… if we dare lie down.

Think About This…

It brings us to a note we received from a reader yesterday. It’s a note that made us scratch our head and ponder a big idea.

Here ’tis…

Great newsletter today as well! What is it going to take [to bring independence]? Go back and read some real history. We have a family history book, I know my family came to America in the late 1600s, for religious freedom. They were not rich, in fact, they all nearly died in transit, it was tough living, dangerous.

They fought in the Revolutionary War, were not paid with currency as we know it, but with land in Indiana. So they took off on a long journey from the east to what then was called the West. Some didn’t make it. Many children were born, many died.

Our family is mixed races, mixed cultures, never owned slaves or supported those who did. The simple fact was they worked hard, sought education, and freedom to live their lives, and worship their God… it was worth it all. I am forever grateful to the risks my family members took to get to America! – Reader C.T.

It’s a great note. We could go many directions with it. It begs for a discussion about immigration… or hard work and fortitude. And the everlasting fight for freedom is alive and well in its tone.

But those ideas, as our founders might say, are self-evident.

What’s not so evident is the tie to another big theme these days… another big topic that’s in the news and in our recent columns.

As we sit behind the big oak desk we made in our own woodshop (which increased our property taxes), we wonder… What is America’s new journey? Now that the West is merely the west, what is it folks are sacrificing for?

What is it they’re willing to risk their lives and livelihoods for?

Looking West

Maybe it’s because it’s on our mind, but we can’t help but point our thumb in the direction of Bitcoin and its crypto brethren – the digital wild west.

The ties, oddly enough, are there.

Freedom… risk… a new system… independence from an oligarchy… outlaws… turmoil… riches… and a trail lined with the souls of indigenous fighters who had what we now want.

Is Bitcoin the new West?

Will our ancestors one day open their family history books and remember “Weird Uncle Andy” as a pioneer of his day – with a six-shooter on one hip and a worn-out keyboard on the other?

Eh… probably not.

We certainly won’t be remembered for moseying into a dusty saloon, spurs clinking with each step – the governor closed all the bars a year ago.

But think of men like Elon Musk, who just invested $1.5 billion into Bitcoin… or Jack Dorsey at Square (SQ), who shunned the nays of regulators as he opened his platforms to a new form of money.

The king back home says they’re crazy, that they’ll never make it. But the trail of pioneers behind them cheers as they press forward.

Dorsey, by the way, just bought another $170 million worth of crypto this week.

Hip… hip… hooray.

But let’s be clear. The path to the setting sun was and is hell.

As our reader wrote above, most of our daring ancestors never got rich. Many never made it to a new home. But their legacy – isn’t that the greatest form of wealth? – lives with us today.

Perhaps it’s our tired eyes this morning, but we’re seeing a grand divide taking shape.

It’s the old versus the new.

On one hand, it’s a burdensome system of laws and regulations that makes industry feel like it’s breathing through a straw. The faster we run, the more we choke.

On the other, it’s a realm of reckless risk aimed at a better way tomorrow.

Who will win?

Again, we turn to our note from C.T.

It was worth it all. I am forever grateful to the risks my family members took to get to America!

We’ll see you on the trail.

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