A Book Bomb?

[krazy kaju]

Looking at all of the contributions to the Rand Paul and Peter Schiff Senate campaigns, I've been wondering why can't we organize a money bomb, but for books? If we could raise $1,000,000 for books, we could probably get the local C4L, Constitution Party, and Libertarian Party of whatever area we're distributing the books in to volunteer and distribute the books for us. We could also probably get brand new books for a discount.

Such a money-book bomb would be very, very effective, especially when done to target specific communities. Imagine for a second if every Roman Catholic in a given city received Church and the Market (http://www.amazon.com/Church-Market-Catholic-Defense-Economics/), Money, Greed, and God (http://www.amazon.com/Money-Greed-God-Capitalism-Solution/), Capitalism and Christianity (http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Christianity-Possibility-Christian-Personalism/). Not only would we convince at least some of those Catholics that the free market was the only moral and pragmatic economic system, we would also stir debate, while at the same time imposing a kind of conformity within the local Catholic community in favor of capitalism. The same could be done to other churches, college bible groups, etc.

Another money-book bomb which could be effective would be something involving an easy, not-very-economic, introduction to capitalism. Something like Ayn Rand's Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Ideal-Ayn-Rand/), Milton Friedman's Free To Choose (http://www.amazon.com/Free-Choose-Statement-Milton-Friedman/dp/0156334607/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253787299&sr=1-3) or Capitalism and Freedom (http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Freedom-Anniversary-Milton-Friedman/), or Ron Paul's The Revolution: A Manifesto (http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Manifesto-Ron-Paul/). Say we book bomb Ayn Rand's "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" for $1,000,000, and assume that we don't get any discounts (which is unlikely). Divide one million by $8.99, and you find out we can buy over 111,000 books. Then you take that number and estimate that about 10% of the people you contact would be convinced that free market capitalism is the way to go. That would be 11,000 converts! If you had the C4L, Constitution Party, Libertarian Party, and Republican Party go out en masse and distribute these books to multiple college campi. The result would be a massive increase within the ranks of the liberty movement.

So does anyone here agree with me and does anyone know how we could go around organizing some kind of money-book bomb during the political off-season (say, 2011)?

[disorderlyvision]

Divide one million by $8.99, and you find out we can buy over 111,000 books. Then you take that number and estimate that about 10% of the people you contact would be convinced that free market capitalism is the way to go. That would be 11,000 converts! If you had the C4L, Constitution Party, Libertarian Party, and Republican Party go out en masse and distribute these books to multiple college campi. The result would be a massive increase within the ranks of the liberty movement.

So does anyone here agree with me and does anyone know how we could go around organizing some kind of money-book bomb during the political off-season (say, 2011)?

I like the idea but....

if you passed out the 111,000 books you would be lucky if 10% even read it. I have a shit ton of books, but almost all of my friends barely have a handful of books. I have found that not too many people actually read anymore.

I have given away some awesome books on this site. (Ayn rand, Paine, john t flynn, j.s. mill etc.) thousands of people visit the site everyday. I usually average about 10 or so entrys per book...

[krazy kaju]

If you give someone a book, they aren't likely to read it, but I think more than 10% would read it. But that's also why we need to target specific audiences. e.g. pass out "Church and the Market" at Catholic parishes, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" to investment clubs or polisci classes, etc.

[TomboMan]

I created a Peter Schiff Book Bomb recently: www.schiffbookbomb.com. I can launch another one again but it's hard to rally a lot of support.

I found also that it might not have been targeted enough. For example, I initially thought it should be directed to people outside of the United States since they can't donate to the campaign. I later switched it over to everybody.

The Book Bomb ended September 22nd and had 9 pledges.