I want to tell a little story, an observation I made once on the road. As a truck driver, I drove all over the country, and stopped in many a truck stop.
I have always been a capitalist, except I call it ‘Thou Shall Not Steal.’ If you can’t steal from me? Than by default, I have a right to possess. The test of ownership, is, can I sell it, can I trade it? This commandment is the foundation of what we call capitalism. Plain and simple, and it works, look around.
I made an observation once in Roanoke, Virginia that really drove it home, just how well the free market really works. I was standing in a T/A Truck Stop, looking and laughing at the postcards. They (the postcards) were of hillbillies, and looked real to me, looked basically like family photo albums, of hillbillies.
Standing there, going through these cards, and laughing to myself, it occurred to me just where I was. I was in Roanoke, Virginia, I was in the belly of the beast, so to speak. The card I was looking at could very well be the great-grandparents of the guy there behind the counter.
Here I am in Roanoke Virginia, at a T/A Truck Stop, being run by Hillbillies, selling me their family photos, and taking my money with a smile on their face.
The American economy is a wonderful thing when there is room to sell me your family photos.
The more I thought about it. We were all doing it, Texas selling pictures of early Texas, early New Mexico, early Colorado, the list goes on and on, family photos everywhere. The American Economy is a wonderful, expansive thing, it allows for most any honest trade were both parties are happy. “Look, I got a picture of a Hillbilly.”
The point is, if you can’t make it here, you’re a loser, and we don’t need to be listening to losers.
George Henry Nichols
August 2026
