Ok, RPForums, I need your help finding something...

[Paulistinian]

So I have a friend from college who I have always liked and I respect him. When we were in college he had a Che Guevara picture on his wall and a communist flag hanging in his room. He worked for the SEIU and is still heavilly involved with them. He currently lives in Sacramento attending law school and is a big time Keynesian, cradle-to-the-grave big government guy. He is deeply involved with the Democrat party and he fancies himself a politician someday. He respects Ron Paul, thinks of him as our Howard Dean whom he loved dearly... He does not agree with most of what Ron believes regarding big government and economics. Today, for the first time, he asked me to send him something to read or to watch that can show him how an economy works without a central bank! This is a huge development and my mind has blanked and now I have no idea what to show him! Help!

[RonPaulVolunteer]

The Road to Serfdom by Hayek.

[Paulistinian]

Good idea... but, this guy is in law school.. no time to read a whole book. I need something to give him that can be read/watched in 30 minutes or less.

[kah13176]

Case Against the Fed, Rothbard?

[RonPaulVolunteer]

Good idea... but, this guy is in law school.. no time to read a whole book. I need something to give him that can be read/watched in 30 minutes or less.

Get him the audio book.

[RonPaulVolunteer]

Or this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6lSR62wmSo

[surf]

"The Case Against The Fed" by Murray Rothbard is pretty short.

edit:Kah beat me to it

[tsai3904]

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt is a great book for people who don't understand the free market. It's a fairly quick read too.

[Travlyr]

Gold, Peace, and Prosperity (http://mises.org/resources/3150) by Ron Paul is a quick read as well.

[Maximus]

"How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes" by Peter Schiff. It's full of cartoons and a super easy read, it won't take away from his studies.

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

http://mises.org/books/denationalisation.pdf

Denationalization of Money - FA Hayek

Hayek in the 1970s:


Though I strongly sympathise with the desire to complete
the economic unification ofWestern Europe by completely freeing
the flow ofmoney between them, I have grave doubts about
the desirability ofdoing so by creating a new European currency
managed by any sort of supra-national authority. Quite apart
from the extreme unlikelihood that the member countries
would agree on the policy to be pursued in practice by a
common monetary authority (and the practical inevitability of
some countries getting a worse currency than they have now),
it seems highly unlikely, even in the most favourable circumstances,
that it would be administered better than the present
national currencies. Moreover, in many respects a single
international currency is not better but worse than a national
currency ifit is not better run. It would leave a country with a
financially more sophisticated public not even the chance of
escaping from the consequences of the crude prejudices
governing the decisions of the others. The advantage of an
international authority should be mainly to protect a member
state from the harmful measures of others, not to force it to
join in their follies.

Enough said.

[RonPaulVolunteer]

There's so many great answers here. Do we have a thread that lists books and their genres? This could be very useful.

[swissaustrian]

Catch him with a progressive guy wanting to support Ron despite of his economic policies: Thaddeus Russell
Show him this video, starting at 4:00:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpZdEwMR6kU

[kah13176]

Edit: posted in wrong thread. Please delete.

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

There's so many great answers here. Do we have a thread that lists books and their genres? This could be very useful.

Of course we do... it's in the hidden from the public, buried because we're embarrassed to talk about it, forum that shall not be named, about labels that shall not be spoken, where the really smart posters and Ron Paul supporters that understand Austrain economics loiter.

I have always fancied how alleged Ron Paul supporters of the limited socialist variety claim to support Ron Paul yet give Ron Paul's life long passion for Austrian economics no attention.

[malkusm]

There's so many great answers here. Do we have a thread that lists books and their genres? This could be very useful.

Why, of course we do! http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?129762-Books-for-Liberty

[ClayTrainor]

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt is a great book for people who don't understand the free market. It's a fairly quick read too.

That's definitely the best recommendation to anyone just starting to look into free market economics, imo.

[Tom in NYC]

I think The Law by Bastiat is the best one for people just getting started. Short, easy to read chapters, so it doesn't bog you down (looking at you, Hayek) and it makes both the practical and philosophical reasonings for a free market society succinctly. I understand one argument against is that it's centuries old, but the truth remains the truth, and many of the objections Bastiat takes on are the same ones made today.

Plus, it's available free!

[pipewerKz]

I think The Law by Bastiat is the best one for people just getting started. Short, easy to read chapters, so it doesn't bog you down (looking at you, Hayek) and it makes both the practical and philosophical reasonings for a free market society succinctly. I understand one argument against is that it's centuries old, but the truth remains the truth, and many of the objections Bastiat takes on are the same ones made today.

Plus, it's available free!

Agreed! Short and sweet. A must read for anyone interested in liberty. I think that is a wall we hit with people. Sometimes you just want to throw a book and someone and be like READ THIS!! Today, that is quite the task.

On another note, please don't send that 5 minute video of The Road To Serfdom. Hayek was actually disappointed and embarrassed while speaking to a crowd assuming that they:


"might have gotten all their knowledge of his views from a 20-page condensation (or worse, from the cartoon edition that had appeared in the February 1945 issue of Look magazine. He seemed particularly worried about being misinterpreted. Thus in a Chicago newspaper under the banner that read in part "Friedrich Hayek Comments on Uses to Which His Book Has Been Put" he stated, "I was at first a bit puzzled and even alarmed when I found that a book written in no party spirit and not meant to support any popular philosophy should have been so exclusively welcomed by one party and so thoroughly excoriated by others."

IMO, Watching that youtube video it hardly reminded me of the book at all. The Road to Serfdom is one of those life changing books and I think anyone not willing to give it a read is doing themselves and the movement a great disservice.