What is, in your experience, the best book/video for bringing people to the ideas of liberty?
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#1 book/video for bringing people to liberty?
What is, in your experience, the best book/video for bringing people to the ideas of liberty?
No single book or media is best for promoting liberty because people are individuals with different values. That being said, I do use some books and videos more than others, but it really does depend on my recent conversations with the person.
LearnLiberty.org has a lot of short, clear, visual, animations and videos about current economic and political issues. I only discovered them recently, but that is probably my number 1 resource now.
I also use “Biblical Economics In Comics” by Lockman with Christian friends, “Economics in One Lesson” by Hazlitt, and “The Law” by Bastiat.
Frédéric Bastiat’s Economic Fallacies, especially the first set (when he created the candlemaker petition). What Is Seen, What Is Unseen is in the same spirit and debunks pretty much every possible government intervention.
One book that taught me some ideas related to liberty while also debunking many economic myths was “Organized Crime: The Unvarnished Truth About Government” by Thomas J. DiLorenzo. You can read the book for free on mises.org here. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys economics and freedom and wants to learn more on the subject.
I think the challenge is finding something that gets the basic points across without making peoples eyes glaze over. Not an easy task when you’re talking about the typical modern American. What set me down the path was Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal but I think really I was already there and was hungry for the information I wasn’t getting in school but instinctively knew was out there.
As a financial professional I send people to the best financial advisers I can find, many of whom are very libertarian. I send people to Mike Maloney (HiddenSecretsOfMoney.com) whenever I can. The videos he has are some of the best I have ever seen. He has superb visual animations illustrating how currency is created and flows through the banking system and government.
For the basic financial and entrepreneurial paradigm shift, Robert Kiyosaki’s (RichDad/PoorDad) CashFlow game is a very fun, interactive way to learn how real world finances work. You can use it with liberals and conservatives. The focus is on taking personal responsibility for your own future prosperity. For taxes I always recommend Tom Wheelwright (ProVisionWealth.com). He really knows how to decrease the amount of your money going to central planners. For savings and basic investing, I have not found anyone better than Patrick Donohoe (ParadigmLife) for helping people set up a foundation for their wealth building strategy. For advanced investing and entrepreneurship, Mike Dillard (ElevationGroup) has been very successful and has excellent instructional materials.
Most of these guys are libertarians, but all of them love free markets and focus on helping people take personal responsibility for their own success. Because of that, I think they are making a huge impact on our future freedom.
I second Paradigm Life. I sat through a presentation of theirs. I didn’t know they were libertarian. I didn’t sign up with them because their rates of return were less than I could make myself.
