Episode 22: The Middleman

Ahoy, crew! I have extra fish! My friend Lily has extra apples! We're gonna trade! Nice! Fair trade, everyone wins! But WAIT. A captain walked up and said: "You can't trade with each other. You have to trade through ME." Uh oh. The Middleman! He took my fish. Took Lily's apples. Then he gave me THREE apples and gave her TWO fish. But we BOTH had five! What happened to the rest? HE kept them! He said it's his "fee" for helping us! But you didn't NEED help! You two were doing just fine! Exactly! We WANTED to trade. We were RIGHT next to each other. Why do we need HIM? You don't! But HE wants a cut. So he makes a rule: "Go through me!" Now he gets YOUR stuff for doing NOTHING! Liberty Lesson: If two people want to trade, they don't need a middleman. When someone FORCES you to use them, ask: Why? What do THEY get? Jab: If you wanna give your friend a cookie, do you need a grown-up to hand it over? NO! You just give it! Same thing! We could trade OURSELVES. The middleman just wanted our stuff! Quest: If someone says "You have to go through ME," ask: Why? What's YOUR cut? What happens if I just... don't? Trade free, crew! Liberty Pirates don't need middlemen! #LibertyPirates #TradeFree #NoMiddleman