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Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Way the World Works.

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So we record these a couple weeks, sometimes before they actually air.

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So as of right now, while I'm recording this, the World Cup is going on.

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And the World Cup is soccer tournament, it's like the global soccer tournament, and people

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come from all over the world wherever the host city is, what they call it, and they get host

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cities.

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But this year, they all happen to be in North America, which means there are a lot of people

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from all over the world.

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I believe soccer is the biggest sport in the whole world, those called football, I guess,

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in other places.

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But everybody, there are so many people from all over the world, all coming to America right

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now.

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And it's been really interesting because you're seeing a lot of TikTokers, a lot of people

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online posting videos of their first time in America, their first experience in America.

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And what they're posting about has been really refreshing and really kind of heartwarming

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to a lot of people.

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So there's one guy in particular, his name is Freddie, he is visiting from Germany.

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And he's the one everybody's talking about right now because he was posting how big his

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hotel rooms are and how cool gas stations were, awful house, all these things.

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It's been really refreshing because we take things for granted sometimes when we're living

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in them all the time.

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Like have you ever gotten homesick before when you go out of town or you're visiting someone

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else?

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You know, maybe right before you go on that trip, you're really eager to leave, right?

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You're sick of your bedroom, you're sick of your toys, you're sick of the things you

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see every day.

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Because even though something is exciting at first, like a new toy, over time you just

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get used to it.

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And so it's not as exciting anymore.

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But then what happens when you go away and you are gone for like a week or more, you start

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really missing home and all of a sudden little things that you took for granted are so exciting

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when you go back.

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I know every time I go to Europe, the water bottles are different there and I know that

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sounds weird.

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But the caps don't come all the way off.

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You take it off and it like hangs on it and it's so weird.

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And then when you come back into the United States, you're like, water bottles.

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And even, you know, I live near Washington DC right now, but I'm from Utah and I, when

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I lived there, didn't really, didn't really appreciate how beautiful the mountains were

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because I was seeing them every day.

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And now when I go back home, I'm just like, oh, they're so beautiful.

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And so that's what's kind of happening right now in America is the things that we take

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for granted, like a waffle house or these things like really nice hotel rooms that are

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pretty decently priced.

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We're forgetting how extraordinary these things are because it's just our way of life.

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And so it's taken these, you know, foreigners coming from other countries, visiting our

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country for the World Cup to remind us how great, how great we have it and all the wonderful

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things that we're able to experience that other countries don't have.

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And even deeper than that, why is it that we have these things?

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Why, why do we get to be so fortunate?

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And it's because of our incredible founding of our history and the things that America

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has built on.

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So let's get into it a little bit more.

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I think when we think about visiting another place and being blown away by, you know, a different

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city or a different country, we think of big things, right?

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Like maybe if you come to America, you see the Grand Canyon or the White House or these

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things that are our big things, big, you know, landmarks and you think that's what's going

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to make somebody excited.

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And that's why I think it's so cool to watch all these visitors posting their videos because

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it's little things, right?

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Like I said, it was a gas station.

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It was Walthus.

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It was our highways.

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It was a sunset and it's just so cool seeing all this through fresh eyes, through new eyes

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because we really do forget about all these things that are around us.

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And at first maybe we're laughing like, okay, you think this gas station is cool.

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And by the way, the gas station was buckies and I don't know if all of you familiar with

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what buckies is.

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It's like a Texas institution really, but it's starting to spread to other parts of the country.

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It's like the Walmart of gas stations.

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What I mean by that is it's huge.

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It is huge.

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It is overwhelming.

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You can get, I think there's like food service there.

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There's like aisles and aisles of just things.

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It's crazy.

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It's like a destination in itself.

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And so when people walk in that, I mean, even I who went into my first buckies probably

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only a year ago walked in and was like, okay, this is crazy.

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So I can't even imagine somebody doing that from another country.

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And so they're seeing these things and we might think like, okay, this is silly.

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This is a highway.

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Like we get to see these things all the time.

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It's just such a good reminder.

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And one reason I'm so happy that this is happening now is, you know, this is still by the time

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you guys hear this, it might be past the 4th of July, but it is still America 250.

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You know, even though Independence Day is past, we're still in the 250th year of our

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country.

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But, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of people who criticize America.

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And I want to make it clear that free speech is incredible.

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And so you're allowed to criticize things.

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We should be criticizing our leaders.

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We should be doing that.

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But there's a lot of people that have just started saying that they're, you know, embarrassed

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of the country because, you know, the founders had slaves or they were imperfect men and

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Oh, colonizers.

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And you hear all the, this, you know, really negative dialogue about America.

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And I think that we have forgotten how lucky we are to live here and how lucky we are to

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have all these things.

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There was another video I saw posted where it was like a group of people eating.

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I think they were from somewhere in Asia and they went to a Mexican restaurant and they

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got free chips and salsa and they were like, wait a second.

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We didn't order these.

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What is this?

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And they're like, Oh, it comes there for free.

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So it's just these little things that again, like in the grand scheme of things is living

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in a country where we sometimes get free chips and salsa at a restaurant, like a revolutionary

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thing.

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Maybe not to us, but to other people, it's pretty great.

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But what is it?

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Like if we were to sum up everything, is it chips and salsa?

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Is it a very big gas station?

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No, it's abundance.

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That's what these people are realizing and recognizing abundance, meaning prosperity, all these things,

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this innovation that's around us and why is that innovation here?

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Because of wonderful entrepreneurs who thought of something innovative and brought it to life

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because we have for the most part a government that allows us to innovate.

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Now, if we were talking about this from the perspective of Americans wanting to better

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our country, we could say there is a way too much government intervention.

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We need to get it out.

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We need to encourage even more entrepreneurship.

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But I want you to suspend that for a minute and think about America's entrepreneurship as

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opposed to other places where this isn't as encouraged.

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This isn't something that people have access to.

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We forget this concept of the American dream where you can come to America with $2 in your

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pocket and work hard and raise up and become somebody successful.

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We kind of roll our eyes at that now and there's a lot of people who might tell you it doesn't

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exist.

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It absolutely still does.

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And I think that it's proof of that when you see all these people coming here and commenting

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on the things that we have and are things everything, no, absolutely not.

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But I think we forget the prosperous abundance that we're surrounded by all the time.

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And as much as there are complaints of like, oh, the middle class is disappearing, things

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like that, our middle class is so much better off than even some of the wealthier people

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in other nations.

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It's just such a good thing to keep in mind.

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And again, the reason we have these things is because of our incredible founding.

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I've talked about this in other episodes, but part of the reason the colonists decided

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to rebel is because they didn't like the king and parliament interfering in things.

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They were sick of all those years that the king had kind of left them alone.

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They were able to be entrepreneurs, be innovators, be merchants on the sea.

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And then all of a sudden the king's like, oh, I ignored you guys for a while because I forgot

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how much money I could get from taxes.

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So I'm going to now crack down the, you know, crack down and start texting you and putting

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all these regulations.

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And they were like, no, because the fact that we were able to be free to innovate and to

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be entrepreneurs, that's how we became successful.

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And so this idea of letting a person be free to provide or to create abundance for other

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people, that's part of this American lifestyle.

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That's part of these American ideals.

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And so it's, it's really important that we not only see these videos as charming and

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as a reminder of like, oh my goodness, I did, I took this sunset for granted.

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I'm going to go look at it.

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That's great too.

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But why?

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And the sunset maybe is a little different than abundance and entrepreneurship, but a waffle

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house or a restaurant, right?

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We can say the reason this exists and the reason that it's so incredible is because we live

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in a country that was founded on free market, on entrepreneurship, on, you know, letting

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somebody pursue happiness be prosperous.

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And so it is such a good reminder, especially in this day and age where people want to say

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horrible things about America and free speech, they should be allowed to absolutely.

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But when we are making critiques, you know, I, I am not somebody who's ever shied away

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from critiquing our government.

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But like I said, every time I go out of the country and I come back, I'm just like, wow,

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look at everything we have, like, look at these amazing things, look at these water bottles

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that I like so much.

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And it's great to, to appreciate that.

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And so I think this is a really good reminder of not just like, oh, how lucky we have it,

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but of the foundation of the American history that let us have all this prosperity.

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So I will leave it there.

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As always, don't forget to like and subscribe to the podcast.

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And until next time, I will talk to you later.