Giving a 4 Minute Speech About Money, Suggestions?

[justinc.1089]

I'm going to be giving a 4 minute speech about money to my business communication class Tuesday. I just told my professor my topic is money to give myself some breathing room so I have different directions I could go to choose between.

I know another guy is doing his speech about the Department of Natural Resources. I'm not sure if its national or a South Carolina state department though. I have a feel its mostly a waste of money, whatever it is exactly. I'm going to find out in a minute. It probably regulates fishing and hunting I guess, along with other things that are probably totally unnecessary. And hunting and fishing could be regulated by a Sheriff's department in my opinion, although I'm sure the regulations on fishing and hunting could probably be dramatically reduced.

There are at least a couple of Republican Party fanboys in the class. One actually sits beside me, and is so stupid he believes there really were WMDs in Iraq, but that they just gave them to Pakistan before we invaded. Obviously he hasn't seen the video of Bush's speech at that dinner where he was mocking people for believing there were WMDs... and the idiot sits right beside me every class like a freak too, when the class is only about 1/4th full. There are like 4 seats empty beside him, and every single class he comes in, and sits right beside me like he wants to date me or something. It really creeps me out, but given his intellectual level its not surprising. Next class Tuesday if he does that again for the like 3rd of 4th time, I'm going to get up and move over a seat after he sits down lol.

My professor is kind of liberal I think. Other than those few people, I don't think the rest of the class has much political bias, so that gives you an idea of my audience.

Once I write my speech I'm going to post it on here for you guys to critique for me. I'm going to use "The Road to Serfdom" and "End the Fed" as two of my sources also so you guys know. I'll probably get another from Mises.org.

Have any suggestions for things I should include or focus on?

[JacksonianBME]

Just repeat verbatim Francisco d'Anconia's speech about money in Atlas Shrugged. You can find a video along with transcript on youtube. Search "francisco d'anconia speech." It's titled "Money, the root of all evil?"

[Travlyr]

Two more quick reads:
Gold, Peace, and Prosperity by Dr. Ron Paul
A Cross of Gold by Dr. Edwin Vieira

[Chester Copperpot]

I got something you can thrill everybody with for 4 minutes...

just check out this link and part one...

http://www.ronlegrand.com/blog/client/index.cfm/388/2009/5/19/The-Financial-Mess--The-Real-Deal


Of course you need the visual.. Need to blow up those $100 bills on something they can all see.. or have them in your wallet etc..

Without the visual it will not have the same dazzling effect.

[Chester Copperpot]

And another suggestion.. Dont read a prepared script.. Let it all just come out of you naturally and you will give it more fire and passion that way..

too many people tune out when people drone on and on in a monotone..

Light yourself on fire and people will come around to watch you burn!!!

[emazur]

mention how the way money is created now is consistent with the 5th plank of the communist manifesto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEuNTEzuToI

[hazek]

You can't go wrong with any of what you can find here: http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=search&q=money

Personally I'd talk about what money really is and how it first came about and what the interest rates are.

[malkusm]

To the OP: Make sure for the first half of your speech, you explain what money is. Most people don't understand that money is a medium of exchange that makes it easier to transfer value and exchange goods and services, without searching for someone who has what you want AND wants what you have.

Then you can explain why manipulation of the medium of exchange predictably alters and distorts outcomes.

[Johnnybags]

Forget a speech, wow them witha Freda Payne song!

Now that you're gone( dollar bill in hand )
All that's left is this piece of gold ( gold coin in hand )
All that's left of the dream I hold
Is this piece of gold
And the memories of what paper money could be
If the FED was abolished for me!

[fisharmor]

I don't know about business communication, but when I took communication in college I chose a topic that was pretty specific.
(Mine was "How Individual Gun Ownership is Essential to a Free Society" - you can imagine how mine went over.)

If it was me, I'd start with something that everyone knows and nobody questions. Something like:
"Why our money guaranteed to lose value over time"
It's a dead simple question, and only Austrian economists have a valid answer.
Keynsians always harp on how it supposedly prevents liquidity problems, but they never address the fundamental question of how that helps you out at the gas pump or the grocery aisle.
Getting into the fraudulent nature of fractional reserve banking is probably too much, but you could at least get them to listen by pointing out that money loses value over time, that's a guarantee, and almost every other money-related issue over the last 100 years has evolved as a band-aid to combat that fact.

[Teaser Rate]

The content of you speech will likely not be very important in your setting, my advice is to pick something you feel comfortable speaking about in front of a group of people and practice the delivery.

If I was in your place, I'd probably pick a fun, non-controversial topic, like interesting historical trivia about money (wheelbarrows, cigarettes, etc.), or the origins on money.

[nayjevin]

Maybe something about how you can buy trillions of zimbabwe dollars for .99 cents now, and how you can buy a gallon of gas still with a 90% silver dime.

[Wesker1982]

+1 on the importance of defining money (medium of exchange). Most people don't think of money as a good, which is vital to understand.

[justinc.1089]

Just repeat verbatim Francisco d'Anconia's speech about money in Atlas Shrugged. You can find a video along with transcript on youtube. Search "francisco d'anconia speech." It's titled "Money, the root of all evil?"

Thanks, that's a superb speech. Sadly its too long for me to use, and I have to write my speech myself, but I'm going to take direction and inspiration from it for sure.

[justinc.1089]

To the OP: Make sure for the first half of your speech, you explain what money is. Most people don't understand that money is a medium of exchange that makes it easier to transfer value and exchange goods and services, without searching for someone who has what you want AND wants what you have.

Then you can explain why manipulation of the medium of exchange predictably alters and distorts outcomes.

Good thinking, I was already thinking the exact same thing!

[justinc.1089]

+1 on the importance of defining money (medium of exchange). Most people don't think of money as a good, which is vital to understand.

Yes it is very important, and I'm going to do my best to emphasize what money is, particularly it being a good. My economics professor didn't even understand that when I tried to explain that to him. (facepalm)

[April1775]

Start by burning a dollar bill. Or the largest bill you can afford to burn.

[Elwar]

A 4 minute speech isn't very long at all.

Make sure you get the first sentence and the last sentence down, those are the most important.

You'll probably be able to focus on about 3 points, set your opening line as a summary of your main point, use about 3 minutes to back up your main point and then end it by re-emphasising your main point.

Add in a quote from someone famous in there or a humorous quip, that'll make it stand out more.

Explaining what money is ala Franciso's speech should be an easy enough speech. Anything complex like explaining the Federal Reserve or anything like that would be too long and too complicated. Find something simple and go with it.

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

Take one of these:

http://www.blitzusa.com/products/fuel/Containment/images/50805%201%20plus%20Self-%20Venting%20Gas%20Can.jpg

Three of these:

http://www.marshu.com/articles/images-website/articles/presidents-on-us-paper-money/one-dollar-bill-large.jpg

http://www.marshu.com/articles/images-website/articles/presidents-on-us-paper-money/one-dollar-bill-large.jpg

http://www.marshu.com/articles/images-website/articles/presidents-on-us-paper-money/one-dollar-bill-large.jpg

Cut one of these in half:

http://duffman23.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/1932-d-washington-quarter1.jpg