The Homeschool How To

#154: What Is Anarcho-Capitalism—and Why It Led Us to Homeschool

• Cheryl - Host • Episode 154

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What happens when you stop accepting the “official story” and start asking better questions—about education, parenting, freedom, and the systems we’ve all been told to trust?

In this week’s episode of The Homeschool How To Podcast, I’m joined by Tim (ANCAPTim)—a homeschooling dad, songwriter, and outspoken advocate of voluntary exchange, individual responsibility, and a truly free market. We talk about what anarcho-capitalism means in plain language, how his worldview shaped his decision to homeschool, and how to raise curious, grounded kids without turning them into “the weird kid on the playground.”

We also get into:

  • Why “both sides” can feel like two wings of the same bird
  • Homeschooling as a custom fit for individual kids (not a one-size box)
  • Unschooling explained without the stereotypes
  • Consumer responsibility, ethics, and “voting with your wallet”
  • AI, creativity, and what tech might change (and what it won’t)

Connect with Tim + his music:
 ANCAPTIM.com 

Mentioned in today’s episode:

If you enjoyed this conversation, please follow the show and leave a review—it helps more homeschool families find the podcast.

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Speaker 2:

I didn't plan to homeschool. I started asking hard questions, realized how little control parents actually have, and made the hard decision to leave a government job to homeschool my kids. Now I interview other homeschooling parents to learn how this all works. I'm Cheryl, and this is the Homeschool How-To podcast. Let's learn this together. Welcome. And with us today, I have Tim from Virginia. Tim, thank you for being here.

Speaker 1:

Hey, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

So, okay, I love this. You're a songwriter and you're on my screen as ANCAP Tim. And I just asked you, I said, what does ANCAP stand for? So why don't you go ahead and tell us?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, ANCAP is short for um anarcho-capitalist. And what that basically means is I am in favor of anarchy, which no rulers in the market. True unadulterated capitalism. So free market. I think the market regulates itself. Generally, if if you kill your customers or if you maim your customers, if you hurt your customers in a free market, you wouldn't be in business long. And you know, people would be able to come after you for damages and whatnot. It seems like it's only in this system, this socialist system that we live in, that people are able to do bad business and not really do anything for their customers and still stay in business. So true free market capitalism, the cream, would rise to the top. You would have total competition. The whole idea that we're taught in public school that monopolies exist is really a fabrication of the state. Monopolies only exist when the state has power to keep out competition. And, you know, the great example they give us as Standard Oil, Standard Oil had government contracts like crazy. That's why they were able to do what they were do what they did. The railroad is another example. I mean, it doesn't get more government involved in the railroad. So yeah, that's what an anarcho-capitalist is. Uh they just want anarchy in the market. And some people, you know, go a step further and they more anarchist across the board. I lean that way. Uh, I think we could do a lot better with voluntarism, this idea peaceful people do a better job regulating each other than agents of the state who have a monopoly on force. So yeah, that's uh that didn't always have to apply to anarcho-capitalism. Anarcho-capitalism is more specifically, I want anarchy in the market, government, yeah, free market, true free market.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it it's crazy because that and you homeschool too, right? For the people listening, they're like, Well, how does she end up here? No, you do homeschool because, and I'm gonna guess, you and your kids are not fully vaccinated if I had to go out on a limb.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, you're right. Not fully vaccinated.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I so and I grew up of the, you know, mindset, the public school, and I remember thinking, like, well, yeah, why can't we just take all the money that we have and disperse it evenly amongst people? Like, what's wrong with that? And I got that from the school system, and it's not that they came out and blatantly said it, but there was definitely like little things sprinkled throughout my years of regular public school and then going to a state university in New York, no less. And and it was only until COVID, and then a bunch of us started waking up and being like, hold on, pump the brakes. Like, you people aren't thinking right. And then we started being like, Whoa, are like, are we the smart people now? Because we're questioning this is weird. And uh, so my eyes started opening up to it. But I had never even learned about the free market in school. Like they, and I took economics, whether they put it in the most boring way possible so that none of us listened or just memorized this for the test, and then you're done. But they never put it in a relatable way for like what does a free market mean? And so when I went to go work for the government for 16 years, I didn't, I it was seriously just doing what they tell you, and you never realize that you're just this one piece in a bigger cog or you're a cog in the wheel of uh doing probably not good things for the economy, right? Even though that like every agency I worked for, like to tout itself. Like we are so wonderful for giving out unemployment insurance. We are so wonderful to be giving out welfare and food stamps.

Speaker 1:

Um, but yeah, you got to steal from somebody to do that. Yeah, yeah. And I have a shirt here. Uh, that's one of my songs, Good ideas don't require force. So if you want to take care of poor people, if you want to feed the hungry, great. I'm a Christian, I'm a follower of Christ. I say go for it. Man, it's it's great. I try to do as much of that as I can. But if you rely on the state to put guns to people's heads, the the threat of violence through taxation, which is extortion at best, theft, really, and to take that money and then give to other people, that's that's not uh voluntarism. That's not what Jesus taught. Jesus taught to freely give of your own self and to give to other people and uh not not rely on the state to do it.

Speaker 2:

And I worked for the tax department for some of that time too. So bad. So bad. And it's not legal. You're right. We all have a past. There is not one statute that says that you have to pay income tax on your wages.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and even to make it halfway palatable, they had to change the U.S. Constitution to even, you know, have their system even say that, yeah, here it here it is, even though, yeah, I I agree with you on on paper, no. I mean, that you're gonna tax a man to work, and and if we somehow thought 1913 that that was a gonna be a good idea. Really, the creation of that came with the creation of the Fed, the Federal Reserve. And um, you know, I could go on the Fed rampage of that for days. Um, we're gonna talk about all the inflation and that we currently have. And so, yeah, but uh it's all a mess. But you can trace a lot of it back to 1913 with the income tax and the creation of the Federal Reserve.

Speaker 2:

Do you think the Titanic really hit an iceberg?

Speaker 1:

Well, that that plays into that Federal Reserve uh by accident. I don't believe any official story at face value. Uh, I'll just put it that way. Uh I've never looked into that one a whole lot. It makes sense. Uh, there were some big names at Jekyll Island. You know, the Tuttle twins have a really good book about the creature from Jekyll Island and uh, you know, Rockefeller and uh Carnegie, or I know it was Carnegie or not, but uh, you know, JP Morgan, all of these, they wanted this Federal Reserve because they wanted this system that was uh going to be rigged in in their favor. And that's what that's why we don't have capitalism. We we have a system that's rigged for certain people where the state picks winners and looters and uh shields people that it wants to shield and and you know doesn't care about usually the us middle class is the ones that it's caught in between.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So, okay, so when did you start having like seeing the world this way?

Speaker 1:

Ron Paul. Ron Paul was my awakening back in eight when uh he was at the the GOP debate, the Republican debate, and he started talking about blowback and that we shouldn't be nation building and we shouldn't be involved in all these wars overseas because it's gonna come back to bite us. American chickens come home the roof, so to speak. And I mean, all the candidates just were like, I can't believe you would say this. And I was a little bit like that at the time. I was Mr. Republican, you know, straight lace. I voted for Bush when I was 18. So, but the courage that it took for that man to stand there in the midst of that crowd, and I mean, the crowd just booed him. And he he he doubled down. He was like, you know, I don't care. I don't care if you boo me or not. Now, this this truth that made me start thinking, I was like, if if because politics, it doesn't go that way. If the crowd boos you, the politician's gonna back up. Oh, I'm gonna go somewhere else because I want you to like me. Paul didn't care. And uh he was concerned about truth. And so me being a Christian, my my my ears kind of perked up, and I was like, maybe he has something to say because he doesn't care what the masses think. Uh, he doesn't care what politics say. And so, yeah, I started that journey of listening to Ron Paul, the Federal Reserve, in the Fed. By 2012, I was pretty much in that Ron Paul revolution, and then I just kind of snowballed from there.

Speaker 2:

Okay, yeah. So then when you had kids, and obviously that played into we are going to homeschool, how did that go over with your wife?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we always pretty much in agreement. Uh, we were kind of on that Ron Paul revolution together. Before that, we were Mr. and Mrs. Republican, you know. Uh, we even drove to South Carolina to campaign for uh you remember the guy, uh Fred Thomas. He used to be on Law and Order, he was an actor. I don't know why we liked that guy, but we like, you know, so that I'm just telling you, that's how ingrained I was in American politics conservatism. So Ron Paul kind of woke us up together. And uh, so then when we had kids, yeah, so we had these questions. We we we pretty much knew we weren't gonna send them to public school, even though it would have been so much easier to do that. It always is, uh, because it's like it's just free day daycare, even though it's really not free. You're paying for it, uh, one way or the other. But uh, so we went to send them my first child to a Christian school to start with. And um, to me, and this might rub some people the wrong way, and I I don't mean it. It is just my experience and and where I am. Okay. Yeah. To me, this Christian school was more statist, and what I mean by status, pro-America, pro-state than the public schools were. And I was like, that's weird. Yeah, I wouldn't have thought that. And uh, so you know, the only other option we thought after that was, well, we'll just homeschool. And I'm glad we did. It's freeing in a lot of ways, it gives you more time to freeze your schedule. And if you're, well, if you're more like me, I'm a little bit more of a unschooler. We have curriculum and we have uh things that we do. Uh we're part of the classical learner. Yeah. Really good, really good stuff. And they and they have like Zoom calls so the kids can be with other kids and ask questions and stuff like that. So we do it just a hodgepodge of of schooling and uh just and really focus in on what they want to learn at the time. Because I mean, public school is all about curriculum and and you got to do this. Everybody has to do it, whether you're interested in it or not, you know. And in my life, and I think everybody's life, if you're not really interested in it, you're not gonna learn it. I mean, yeah, you can learn it just enough to pass a test, but it's not gonna stick with you. But it but if you're something that you really want to learn, you're you're gonna dig in and you're gonna you're gonna learn it. Like my oldest, she really likes video editing and stuff like that. She even helped me with one of my music videos. And so I'm like, I'm leaning into that. Not saying she's gonna grow up and be a uh video editor, but maybe, you know, it's I'm just gonna lean into what they want to at at the time and we'll try to fill in the other gaps here. I'm not gonna say they're not gonna learn math or you know, they're not gonna learn to read. And but I I found that it's scary for a lot of people when they start this journey, but a lot of those things like them learning how to read kind of works itself out. And so it's really no reason to be that scared. Uh, because if the public school could teach us how to read, I think pretty much anybody can teach anybody how to read. I I'll just put it that way. I don't have much faith in the public school.

Speaker 2:

So true. And I remember interviewing um Elijah Stanfield, the illustrator for the Tiddle Twins on my podcast. And he goes, Public school in a few years is going to be the welfare of school. Like that's gonna be the welfare of education.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's it's like that's where, you know, like most people would be like, Oh, I'm not sending my kid there. And I at the time I was like, oh, what a bold statement. And now I'm like, Yeah, I'm seeing that. What did you mean though when you said that like the Catholic school or was it Christian the Christian school, yeah, was status? Like had you gone from the like, you know, Stanford, the Pledge of Allegiance and and our you know, our military and all that to more like, hey, this is opposite ends of the same opposite wings of the same bird.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah. Because as a Republican, you're always taught that the left is pro-state and the right's not. You know, we're for freedom, the right. I have come to learn that, like you said, it's it's two wings of the same bird. The left is more pro-state when it comes to social security, or, you know, it's not talking about the program, but like the security of society, safety nets, and things like that. But man, the right is just as statist, but just in other flavors, you know, more pro-uh police, definitely pro-ICE with all the stuff that's going on now, pro-military. And so, yeah, that was one of the things that really rubbed me, even when I was Mr. Bush. I had to eventually come to the point where it's like, why are we in Iraq? Why are like, even if you believe 9-11, the the official story of 9-11? I'm not saying it didn't happen, but the official story, why are we in Iraq? Like, why it makes no sense? And so then you start seeing how the church treats this, these wars and nation buildings, and it's like they root it on. And it's like, aren't we following the Prince of Peace? Why are we for war? Um, and I'm not saying you have to be a pacifist, uh, even though I get in closer and closer there every day, but you have to realize that that war is a racket and it's not something that is used for good the majority of the time. It's it's it's special interest. I mean, look at what's going on in Venezuela. You know, they're gonna put this, frame it as it's it's fentanyl and drugs, but you know, we've been we live through a rock. We know what's up. Venezuela was on that list of the axis of evil back when Bush started all this stuff back in when I was 18. So yeah, war was a was a thing that really woke me up and um I kind of got off track a little bit there. What was the what was the main question there?

Speaker 2:

I don't know, but it brings me to another question because this I ask all the time. So the people back in like the 60s and 70s that were against war, that were protesting, have somehow now become the Democrats. How do you think that happened? And then and then the people who were kind of like, I don't know, like me, like I don't really pay attention to that stuff growing up. And then now I'm leaning more conservative, even though I do think it is both sides of the same bird, and there's just all puppets up there, somebody else is controlling them from the top. But when they tell us we have to go vote, there is a side that I vote for. If they want to take a poll and see how we feel, I'll I'll give them my ideas. But how do you think that dynamic happened? Like, is that a mind game in itself? The dynamic of the pro-war and the people that were protesting war are tend to now be the people that are the ones um, you know, Antifa, except for Antifa, is actually not anti-fascist because they're no, they're it's but like you know what I mean, that kind of these people, or like you get the the people that used to sing about, you know, anti-state, anti-establishment, and then those were the people that were telling us to get the COVID shot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh yeah. Now, yeah, that is it shows the hypocrisy. You and your audience seize the left's hypocrisy. Like you're gonna say you're anti-war, but yet you you support basically the COVID police and and and forced injections. Like, so you're against aggressive force overseas, but at home, you're talking about you know, forced vaccination didn't bother you at all and all these things. Yeah, it's a hypocrisy. And I I say it's hypocrisy on the right, too. That you know, they're the ones that claim that they're so pro-freedom, but yet you can't have freedom and have a police state. You can't have freedom and have ice like just rounding up everybody. You know, part of freedom is freedom of movement. And I and I'll I'll rub a lot of people wrong there, but you know, if if somebody comes to this country illegally and they work on my farm and and they rent from me, who who are they hurting? Like that they're not people, the right loves to say that they're against collectives, but yet they use this country as a collective. And they they like to wrongly say that property rights, like they they equate property lights rights to people coming to this country and saying, you know, well, they they came across the border, they violated property rights. Whose property rights? I'm talking about individuals. If they're renting from somebody, working on somebody's farm, who whose property rights did they violate? That you know, so I think there's hypocrisy all the way around. But yeah, the left is a little bit more in your face sometimes. Yeah, it's just it's laughable. Yeah, yeah. I'll agree with that.

Speaker 2:

So how do you homeschool kids in a world like this? This has always been one of my questions from the beginning. When you're I mean, down to like, I don't know, you're reading a children's book about the moon landing, and you know, I'll find myself saying to my son, like, it's what they tell us allegedly. Allegedly. But like, it's like, I don't know. I'm still figuring that stuff out. A lot of things don't make sense about that. Or or 9-11 and how that actually happened. How do you homeschool? You have how many kids do you have?

Speaker 1:

Two. Have a six-year-old and two girls, six-year-old and twelve-year-old.

Speaker 2:

So, how do you do that? When you know, when you look at the world the way that you do and you see it the way that you do, like you don't want to scare them, but make them sound crazy on the playground.

Speaker 1:

Well, I mean, they probably think I'm crazy. Uh, yeah, they definitely get the anti-state uh side from me. You know, I you know, and I and I let them know. So, but but I but I I definitely want them to be open too. You know, don't just, you know, everything your dad says is the gospel truth. You need to you need to look and you need to discover these things on on your own.

Speaker 2:

After three years of interviewing homeschooling families, I realized how overwhelming it can be to piece everything together. So I took the best advice, tips, questions, and resources that I've learned along the way and put them into one practical ebook. If you're looking for a clear starting point, you'll find the link in this show's description.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, I I try to be open. So that that and and I think not having a set curriculum kind of allows you to do that because with curricul certain curriculum, it's almost like systematic theology. I mean, there's gonna be there's gonna be a certain standard that they set and they're gonna keep that that standard, and rightfully so with with curriculum. But when you kind of glean from different sources and pull a little bit here, pull a little bit there, I think you're able to maybe see a little bit broader picture and not be so narrow in on in schooling. Uh, so that's that's kind of my approach. I don't ever want to give them a narrow view because I think it's important for people to develop their own point of view.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, that's a lot of sense. And it is hard with the curriculum. I, you know, I work with the Tuttle twins. I've been reading their books long before I ever started working with them. In fact, when they were like, we'll send you the books, I was like, man, I already bought them. Start it. But I do love the way they kind of like put it all to a story so that you know the little ones might not be getting the full concept, they're just listening to the story as you get older, and even for us, it's entertaining to listen to.

Speaker 1:

And the show, the show is great. I mean, you know, the but the books, the books too.

Speaker 2:

The show is so good, yeah, on Angel Network. Uh any in the history books. So we'll listen to those even on audio, sometimes in the car. And I've I've just learned way more than I ever did in school. And this is me homeschooling a seven-year-old. So it's sad. Well, you're right. Like if the if the public school can teach your kid how to read, you will have no problem. It just might have to be when they're cognitively ready. You know, with my son, I'm like, come on, why aren't you reading at five years old?

Speaker 1:

And it's like it's different for everybody.

Speaker 2:

Run around. Yeah. So run around and jump and play.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And that's what five-year-olds should be doing. I mean, especially boys, you know, the boys at public school, like they treat everybody the same. You know, they're they're so big on gender and gender fluid, you know, and all this stuff, but yet they don't realize the, well, I guess that is the problem. They don't realize the difference between a uh uh a male and a female, and and and they treat them both the same. You know, boys they can't sit in a desk, you know, eight or six hours a day or whatever it is, you know. It they they've got to move around. And a lot of girls are the same way, but I think girls have the attendant the tendency to be a little bit more focused, especially at an early age than than boys. We just, you know, we have a our brain develops slower, you know. But if we're just two different people and and our two different genders. And uh yeah, the public school system just everybody has to fit in a in a certain box. And that's I'm anti-state because the state sees us all as a collective, the state sees us all as a group of people instead of individuals. We are all individual people with individual thoughts, with individual dreams, and you can't put everybody in the same box. And uh, so I, you know, that's the main idea of ANCAP Tim is that I'm for the individual. I'm anti state because I'm for the individual. And yeah, I try I try to bring that into schooling as as well. You know, that they're they're gonna have both of my my two girls, they're both different. They're not the same, they're not the same person. So, you know, you they they learn different. And um we use different strategies to teach them both different, you know, I don't try to put the same the same shoe on both of them because they both have two different sized feet.

Speaker 2:

Well, and I love what you said about the unschooling, because for a lot of people that just, you know, might be new to homeschooling and really like, what is unschooling? You just kind of let your kid play video games all day, or you know, and it took me a long time of talking to all different families to kind of get a broad overview of like what unschooling actually is. And it isn't we don't we just let them do whatever they want all day. It is like we see what interests them and then we give them a curriculum or a unit study or you know, guide them with lessons and something, you know, maybe it's a ukulele, it's a lessons, or you know, it's guiding them and what interests them. And you keep you keep bringing up the point of us being individuals. And I think it took a long time for me too to realize that not every kid needs to know the exact same thing by the time they graduate at 18. Because as I'm interviewing these families, I'm like, man, but you're taking you're you're teaching your kid Latin. Like, oh my god, I don't want to do that. I have no interest in learning Latin. Now it might be that I have no interest because I've never looked into Latin. Maybe it actually would be interesting because you'd you'd relate it to the history and and the Bible and stuff like that. That would be cool, but like just learning Latin, like I'm not gonna use it anywhere, it just seemed awful to me. And after a while, I kind of stepped back and I'm like, I don't have to teach wicked Latin if we don't want to learn Latin.

Speaker:

Exactly.

Speaker 2:

We we don't have to do earth science if we don't want to do earth science. We don't have to do trigonometry. We can spend uh an entire year on World War II and you know, talking about the conspiracy theories versus what they teach you in the school system and talk about it and have debates with each other. Like you can make this as cool as you want to make it, and that is free, it's freeing so free.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you don't have to be locked into a certain certain thing. You can be an individual and you can be free.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I graduated high school and college, four years of college, and I feel like I knew nothing.

Speaker 1:

Well, I mean, yeah, yeah. You know, the public school system was designed to get people used to going to a factory job, you know. I mean, that that's that's what it was. And nothing to knock factory jobs, you know, but that that was the purpose of it. So when we don't har hardly have any factory jobs in America, maybe we should rethink that. And uh before that, it was more like unschooling. People people learned on an individual level. Now they had maybe an individual to tutor that came by and and taught them things. And it wasn't until they went to like a university that they maybe got that collective teaching, you know, that that group teaching. But their formidable years, their foundation years was all at home before the public school system.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I mean, they had one room schoolhouses, but that was like the difference there was that the community got together and talked about who they wanted to be the teacher. You know, like you decided, okay, I like this lady, I like her values, I know her. Let's make her the teacher. And then you all like probably put in money to pay her salary. So it wasn't like forced taxes, it was voluntary exchange.

Speaker 1:

Yes. Good ideas don't require force, you know. So you don't need a gun in the government to pay for teachers, you know. We can do it voluntarily. Like you said, like Little House on the Prairie, you know. We love watching that. I watch that with my girls, and uh, because they got the the two the two girls, uh the older and the younger.

Speaker 2:

And uh but yeah, we watch that as well, and I feel like we've been watching it for two years straight, and it's still going on, which I love, but I'm tired of play paying for Peacock because it's like $17 a month now. I'm like, can we just get through it? There's like there's like 10 seasons that all have 30 episodes each.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

But it is so good. I heard that it's very different from the books because it's obviously more dramatic for TV. So uh someday we'll sit down and read the books, maybe with my daughter. I don't see my son doing it, but with my she's only three now. But yeah, I love Little House on the Prairie, and it has given me such a good perspective on things. Like I will always say to my son now, because we've watched it for over a year, probably two years now. I will always say to him, like, we'll be driving on a road, and I'll say, Imagine this road during Little House on the Prairie days. This road probably wasn't here, this was probably a farm. And so I will relate so much back to, oh, look at this is when like Laura was little. That's the time period this was happening. You know, if we're talking about the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, I'll be like, Oh, well, this was a hundred years before Laura Inglis was even born. Yeah, and that gives him perspective. So I know people hate, you know, watching TV, but like, whatever to me in so many situations, and it's just nice. We all get together as a family at night and watch it.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, and my girls do a lot of the the lessons are on their iPad just because my oldest grew up, she was a YouTube kid, you know, and like YouTube kids, full YouTube. But uh that to her, that it's that audible and visual, she's got it. If she if she hears it and uh and sees it, and that's like me, that's how I am. But my wife's totally different. She's more of a she likes to read it. And uh, I think our youngest may be more like her, learn to read quick. Well, both of our kids learn to read really quick. Uh, you know, I'm not gonna take much credit for that. Uh because like I said, your public school could teach you how to read. They just picked it up. And um, and a lot of it for my oldest was watching these videos where somebody would read and they'd have the words, and you know, it would kind of like the the bouncing ball kind of thing, and it she just picked it up, and uh so yeah, yeah, you know, because with my son, he's seven, and we're like just getting there now.

Speaker 2:

Like he'll I'll have a book or there will be something on the TV or I'm on a truck, and he'll start to sound it out and say it. And I'm like, oh my god, it's been like three years. This is amazing. Yeah, and then my daughter, like, I know she'll just start and I'll have to give Miss Rachel the credit on YouTube. Miss Rachel, are you familiar with that? Yeah, Miss Rachel taught my daughter how to read.

Speaker 1:

But and there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with using all these different sources. I'm definitely not anti-technology. I think it's it's great.

Speaker 2:

What do you think then for the future of AI and what that's gonna do to our jobs? And is it going to be the terminator?

Speaker 1:

I mean, if you want to go some crazy territory, uh, I was listening to it was uh I don't listen to Tucker Carlson that much, uh, but uh it was he had an interesting guest on, and they were talking about how AI could be like the antichrist and stuff. And I I thought that was interesting. Uh I didn't take in enough to even talk sensible about it right here. Uh but it's as far as AI, um, I think it's technology and it can be can be used to make people's lives better. So I I'm not never I'm never gonna be anti-technology just because you know somebody might lose a job or something like that, because there's always more benefit. You know, that it's kind of like a socialist idea of being anti-technology because of jobs. You know, if that's the case, let's do away with all the uh bucket trucks or uh backhoes and stuff and just give a bunch of workers spoons to dig a ditch. You know, it's uh the how I mean how far can you go? Technology's great and it makes people's lives better and it helps businesses and workers alike get more done in the same amount of time. So I I'm never gonna be anti-technology unless AI becomes the Antichrist or something.

Speaker 2:

But also, how do you feel though, as a songwriter? Because now you can say to Chat GPT, hey, write me lyrics for this and you know, the music for that, how does that affect you?

Speaker 1:

It bothers me a little bit, but I I've even used Chat GPT. I've had a really good idea, I had a verse, and then I'm like, what would rhyme better here? And he spits me off 15 different things and I choose one. So I'm not one to be like, hey, write me a song just because I even tried it a couple of times. I think it's a little cheesy, but uh again, it's a tool. If if if you if you use it correctly, or well, I'm saying there's a right and wrong way to use it, but use it sparingly. I I think it it can help. Even helped me one time come up with a song title for one of my songs. I was like, what should I name this song? And he gave me like three or four different uh I say he, I don't know what it is, uh gender neutral something. I don't know. But you know, and I was like, hey, that that one's good.

Speaker 2:

He identifies as a cat.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I can't. So yeah, yes, use it sparingly. I mean, and if it if it helps you, great.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I and I and and there have been lots of instances where I try to have it help me and it like can't do the thing I'm asking. And I'm like, are we really worried that it's gonna take over the world? It's like I'm just trying to get it to put an ad in the like take out ums and uhs in my podcast without distorting my voice. Yes. Can't do that.

Speaker 1:

I know the simplest things it just can't handle sometimes. And it's like, dude, like, you know, you can come up with a fake picture, you know, out of the blue, but you can't, like, like you said, do something simple.

Speaker 2:

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Speaker 1:

It's a and and it's and it's chat GPT is very agreeable with you, like so much so that it's like it it's almost useless because it you'll be asking it in a maybe it's opinion or or something like that, and it just wants to agree with you. And it's so yeah, yeah, it's it's got a ways to go if it's gonna take over the world.

Speaker 2:

But I've noticed that too, and that's so creepy about it. Like they programmed it to be like, make this person feel good. So it'll always be like, You're on the right track. I'm your best bud. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, they want you to keep using it. It's a you know, it's a business aspect.

Speaker 2:

I see Mark Zuckerberg's face every time it does that to me, like creepily behind a computer, going, I'm gonna be your your spouse one day. Like, like he's trying to make people fall in love with their chat GPT.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it does come across that way. Yeah, they want you to keep paying that $19.99 a month.

Speaker 2:

You know what I wanted to ask you in the very beginning when you're talking about the um you know, capitalism and the free market, and I asked, I I released an episode last week. Well, when this airs, it would be in December. I released it. So with an an economist from the Mises Institute. Yeah, I saw some of that. And I asked him, so I was in Mystic, Connecticut in June, and I was at a whale like on the seaport, they have a museum and they had a whaling exhibit, and I didn't know what whaling was. Like, I was like, Okay, see a whale, I don't know. And then it wasn't until one of the ladies that was working in the general store in their little house on the prairie kind of thing, they have it like set up back in the old days. She was like, Oh, did you happen to go to the whaling exhibit? And I'm like, No, my kids are kind of tired, we're gonna head out. And she's like, Oh, did you even go on the the ship? That was the last, this was the last wooden whaling ship in existence. And I'm like, I don't, I don't even know what whaling is. And so she's like, Oh my god. So she explained to me though that it was this process of like killing these whales, and they use the it for oil and all sorts of things, right? They and they would go out on these adventures for three to five years, they'd come back, they'd process the whales right on the ship. Like it was pretty amazing what they did. They'd go down, they'd have a little guy standing up, and then when when he'd see the whale blow, and and he'd have to know that that blow is from that particular whale because that one floats when it's dead, and that was easier for them to pull. But that's where the saying, there she blows, comes from because he'd be standing up there, there she blows, and everybody would go out on the smaller ship, on the the smaller boats, basically kill it with the spears or whatever they if they had a better term for it, and then lug the whale by rope, and then somehow get it back up onto the ship and they'd process it there and they'd do that for like 60 whales. So this took three to five years. They'd go out on these ventures and come back and then go out and do it again. So, long story short, a lot of the whales became extinct that they were using for this, right? And the whaling exhibit, the whole thing, there was a big monument and it was all about capitalism being bad.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah, right.

Speaker 2:

I'm looking at this thing, I'm like, oh, this is cool. Is this like a life-size whale? The curator comes over and she's like, Well, and I was like, Hey, why is why is Rockefeller up there? And why is you know, it had like people of today too, probably Trump. So I'm like, why are these people on here? And she's like, Well, it's an anti-capitalism monument. And I'm like, why? What does that even have to do with whaling? And she's like, Well, if there wasn't capitalism, if somebody was overseeing this, then the whales never would have gone extinct. And yada yada. So, what I wanted to kind of touch on is you said in the beginning, if it was going to harm us, they would stop, they don't want to maim their customers, they don't, they don't want you to die because they want you to be a repeat customer, but what about when it hurts somebody else? We kind of have to have a certain responsibility to know that what we're buying is ethical, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that gig like how does that work? Yeah, I think that comes down to the consumer, a a knowledgeable consumer. So if whaling and the possibility of the extinction of whales mean something to you, then you vote with your purse and you don't buy this product, you buy something else. You know, with Standard Oil and a lot of these companies that were doing all this whaling, I'm I'm sure they had some government contracts and some regulation that helped them keep out alternative maybe fuels. And uh, you know, that there were there was a reason that they focused so much on the oil from the well instead of oil maybe out of the ground or or you know, so that's the problem with with government regulation. It's gonna benefit one group over the other. Whoever's got the most money to pad the politicians' pockets to write the laws, they're they're they're gonna win out. It was, I don't know if it's an Austrian economics guy that that came up with the term Baptist and bootlegger, but like every law, you can you can find the Baptist and you can find the bootlegger. So like prohibition is the most obvious. Uh the Baptist, drinking's wrong. You shouldn't drink, you know. We need to outlaw it because morally, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, and then the bootlegger is gonna benefit off this law, gonna benefit off prohibition because that means prices for their uh homemade whiskey or whatever, uh, is gonna go go up because the state is keeping everybody out of it. And uh, so every law, whether you you look at environmental laws that would maybe protect the whales, yeah. You have like the lady who was telling you that capitalism's evil and look at whaling as an example, she's the Baptist in that situation. And the bootlegger is all the people who's gonna benefit off of whatever, whatever law. Let's say say it's uh they want to push solar panels or or green energy. Well, it's the companies that are making the green products, the solar panels, whatever. Like they're the ones that are pushing for it. And and they use the bootlegger will always use the Baptist to to do what they to get the law on their side.

Speaker 2:

Greta Thunberg.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that makes sense. It does. And it so we really have to put more on ourselves to say what are we consuming, even down to our cell phones. It's like, don't talk to me about slavery when you've got a cell phone in your hand and they're using children to dig for the cobalt in these mines and like half of them are dying or whatnot. So yeah, it it's in an in an age now where it is so easy to get this information. Yeah, it's like you you really can, but you have to be willing to then sacrifice, okay, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna go without the cell phone then or am I gonna shut my mouth?

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Well, yeah, and the child labor thing has a different you also have to look at it from a different standpoint. You have to look at it from a third world, I hate to use that term, but you have to look at it from their standpoint. Would these what would these kids do without the job? I'm not I'm not in favor of child labor, but where would they be without the job? Dead, probably. Start. You know, that there's always there's always two sides. It's they have a job and they're able to eat. So I I'm I'm not I'm not making excuses for it, but there's there's other aspects. And uh so I think free people deciding whether they want to support that or not is a whole lot better than government force uh because that is a monopoly. Government gets to to tell everybody what to do and what to what to not do, where whether I want to maximize freedom, where individuals get to say, no, I don't want to support that. I don't want to be a part of that. Again, good ideas don't require force. If if if you've got a a good message that the world needs to hear about children in a uh lithium mine or whatever, then then share those things. You don't need force, you don't need the state's force to help you spread those ideas. That's what that's what you know, voluntary exchange is.

Speaker 2:

Is that why you became a songwriter?

Speaker 1:

Uh, I've always been in it involved in music. Uh, I was a music minister at a church for quite a long time. And then when I when my views started to go a little bit more libertarian state, I kind of saw that that was probably not the best fit at a Baptist church. I didn't know how well that was gonna go over. So I kind of eased myself out. Then I was with a Christian band for a while. It was a little more freeing being at a different church every week. You know, uh people weren't gonna look at my Facebook post or stuff, you know, stuff like that. So yeah, that's kind of the journey that I took as far as a musical journey to get me to songwriting. Grew up in a church, did the Christian band thing, learned a lot about songwriting with the uh the other guy in the Christian band. He was a songwriter. He was a songwriter for our group, and so kind of really learned how to do it without doing it myself. And then COVID hit and it it killed that Christian band. I mean, it all the churches shut down, you know. And we were doing it pretty much full time, going from church to church, sometimes Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, you know. Wow. And then when that stops, churches just close up and you've got it booked out six months, and they're like, sorry. Well, you know, we don't know what it's gonna be in six months, or and we just had to call it quits. And I was very angry during that time, during COVID, as it woke a lot of people up, and I'm glad for that. But man, I was just so mad at the world. Yeah, just screaming, like, why are y'all going along with this craziness?

Speaker 2:

And at the church, no less.

Speaker 1:

Yes, at the church. Yeah, I actually went to it, went to started going to a different church over COVID, over their their BS, that you know, all their precautions. And it's like, give me a break, guys. Y'all can't see through this. So, writing to me was an outlet, an healthy outlet to where I could express some of these things and not just be so mad inside. And so that's really kind of the start of ANCAP 10 was during COVID and and with a notepad on my my phone around 2020. Uh, a lot of these ideas came to life then. And uh, that's why I put the got the album done in in in uh July of this year. And just, you know, wanted to share these these principles of the individual is more important than the collective. Good ideas don't require force. War is a racket, Christ is king. I, you know, I end the album with that. Uh so that that was that was the purpose of Band Cap Tim, just to just to share freedom and voluntary exchange. It's like we all know that that's how the world should run with voluntary exchange. I have something, you want something, let's trade, let's barter, let's, let's, let's make a deal. But yet we think that the state has to be involved on all these other these aspects of our lives. And that's not voluntary exchange. That's that's force. And so, yeah, just trying to share these ideas and hopefully bring some people to the liberty movement.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I would imagine it would be hard for you to be in a job like in a corporation or working for the man.

Speaker 1:

Well, you know, I there's nothing wrong with working for someone, uh, but uh, yeah, I I do own my my own business, do some construction work, and I also do studio work for other people, not just for NCAP Tim. I do edits and mixing and mastering. So yeah, I I definitely like being my own boss. You know, I'm definitely have that uh that rebel streak in me. But I, you know, I don't think there's anything wrong with working for someone, even working for a corporation. I'm not anti-corporation, but I will say that in a true free market with no regulations, corporations wouldn't exist. Corporations exist to get around regulations. So if the regulations weren't there, that there'd be no need for corporations. Uh so that's where me and the left, you know, the left hate corporations. And and some rightfully so. But I'm like, you realize it's the state that you love so much that enables the corporation to be to have the power that it has.

Speaker 2:

All right. Can you walk us through that for just a minute? I know and we're running up on the hour, but I'm trying to conceptualize how that would work. How why wouldn't a corporation survive in a completely free market?

Speaker 1:

I mean, I'm not saying it couldn't survive. I just don't think there would be a need for it. Because the whole purpose of a corporation is to make it a more about a collective instead of an individual, because individuals pay taxes, right? So when you have a corporation, a corporation doesn't pay taxes, uh, only its employees do. And so you're able to uh keep more profit, which profit's a good thing in business, and uh it enables you to to invest and to spread your business and to innovate. So I'm not against profit. I love profit, but the corporations exist so that they can get around taxes and and I don't blame them. And they exist to get around regulations and they exist to push regulations, the whole Baptist and bootlegger thing. They're they want the regulation so that the little guy can't compete anymore, so that the little guy has to have a lawyer on staff just to know if he's in compliance. You know, they love that stuff. So if the market was anarchy, if the market was free, that's what anarchy means, no rulers, freedom. We had a free market. I don't think there would be a need for uh corporations. There could be groups of people that own a business, and there could still be shareholders, somewhat, but the whole idea of a corporation is a state construct because it it's it's has its very existence in the state and all the documents that you have to get to be a corporation and all these things. And so, yeah, I don't think it would exist in a true free market.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's stuff they never let us ponder that those thoughts in school either. No, no, no. Like, let's what what if? You know, they never let's just stretch your mind like that. That's so cool. All right, so where can people find you if they want to check out your music, your album?

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Ancaptim.com. So an c A P T I M.com. Don't put a WW in there, just AnCapTim.com, or you just search AnCapTim on Google. My album, my debut album, is on all the streaming services. It's on uh Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon music, uh, YouTube music, all that stuff. I have some uh music videos that are on YouTube as well, but all those links to all the socials and all of the streaming is at ancaptim.com. And you know, I you know, I've I've plugged this, I don't know how many times, but uh yeah, I have some some merch, some shirts and stuff that have different sayings of of my you know, some of my songs, but that all can be found at at AnCapTim.com.

Speaker 2:

All right, I'll put the link in the show's description too. So if you can just hop there and check it out. That's so cool. Well, I I know your girls are having a blast with you homeschooling them with sometimes. So it's like we need we're gonna be able to do it parents.

Speaker 1:

You're crazy. Like we don't, you know, we don't want to lecture as we, you know, drive by something and it set you off and we have to hear it for 15 minutes, you know. So it's not always fun.

Speaker 2:

There will be a day that they appreciate that, and we need more of that in the world, more thinkers, more think it through. What would happen? What if? So thank you so much, Tim, for being here today. This has been so fun.

Speaker 1:

Hey, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for listening to the Homeschool How To Podcast. If today's episode helped you, please be sure to follow the show and leave a review. It's the best way to support the podcast. And if you're just getting started or need a reset, head to thehomeschoolhowtu.com and grab my free 30-day homeschool quick start guide. Until next time, keep learning, keep questioning, and thank you for your love of the next generation.