I have both How an Economy Grows and Why it Doesn't and The Kindom of Moltz.
They are supreme brilliance. These are incredible feats by Irwin Shiff: he made the complex seem simple like never before (as far as I am aware). These two works also serve as exemplary demonstrations on how to educate ANYONE on economics by tranferring information into an enjoyable experience.
Many people are intimidated by economics books. The Austrian approach (human action) is very engaging, but a comic book is even moreso. A comic book is the ideal teaching tool in book form, because of the things we associate them with. First of all, comic books are not intimidating, because we associate them with things even kids can understand. Second, we automatically expect a positive, enjoyable experience from them, because we associate them with comical material and (most) have had only fun experiences with them. Third, it teaches through imagery! Perfect! Imagery is a much more effective teacher than text. You remember a picture, then what you associate with a picture, often permanently. We haven't utilized imagery enough in education.
I think
How an Economy Grows and Why it Doesn't is the most effective (easy to learn) economics book, and the best first economics book, period. It is also the most entertaining. Yet, it doesn't sacrifice content and in fact includes much "surprises;" information you don't usually hear of or learn from other economics resources. Some people will actually need these things taught to them in exactly this way if they ever hope to learn the concepts. I won't run through its content, since you can read it free now, but I do want to go ahead and read it asap if you haven't yet because you won't regret it. It is fun, funny, engaging, and this page demonstrates why it is so educational; the principles that apply in the society in the book apply to any economy, no matter how large or complex. Think of businesses as "gears" and the economy as the "engine:"
The Kindom of Moltz is also incredibly effective, and shorter, which will get people to read it and therefore learn about inflation. Most adults don't even understand how this works, yet it runs our world as we know it and any 8 year old could learn it with The Kindom of Moltz. I would recommend adults who haven't read either How an Economy Grows and Why it Doesn't and The Kindom of Moltz to read them, even if they think they understand the fundamentals of economics, just to brush up. Many of us on here have even reported learning unexpected things from them. Also, revisit them every now and them, again, to brush up. Crystallize. You will see new connections within your evolving (hopefully not too much) perspectives and current events.
A QUESTION FOR EACH OF YOU, do any of you know of any more business educational resources that are taught in comic/cartoon form (on entrepreneurship, economics, etc...)?
I think all of us could benefit from such material, and it would enable us to forward the resources to others as well.
Money as Debt is a perfect example and they did a supberb job on that. Watch that as soon as you can if you haven't yet. It's about how banks create money out of thin air and it is also very engaging/entertaining/interesting.
We need more educational material in comic book form; people are just more willing to read it. This is why
How an Economy Grows and Why it Doesn't is in desperate need of a reprint at this particular moment in time.
The Kindom of Moltz is needed
as well, because of the emphasis on inflation in particular. The only other one I know of along the comic book method is
Johnny Bunko, which is excellent, and a perfect example of the types of educational books we need to see more of. I'd recommend it.
I am also aware of a vocabulary building series called Vocabulary Cartoons that is extremely effective.
I have these and would absolutely recommend them!
We need more educational books like this: TEACHING WITH COMICS! It is very, very effective. People want to learn, they just don't want to dread the process of learning. Because of our economic situation (and Ron Paul, Jim Rogers, Peter Shiff, etc...), more and more people are getting interested in Economics at this particular point in time. SO...
Someone please, atleast get How an Economy Grows and Why it Doesn't back in the bookstores. It will sell today. We need it now more than ever and people ARE interested in it.
(PS> Yes, I joined the forum to give Irwin Shiff's books their due credit and to make the point that comic material is an extremely effective form of education. I love you all for your cause.)
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