"Book of the Month"

Is anyone interested in reading either: The Betrayal of the American Right by Murray Rothbard or As We Go Marching by John Flynn?

My first pick from this last list is The Law-Frederich Bastiat and my second pick is Ayn Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness.

I vote for Anarchy, State and Utopia.

That is 1 vote for Anarchy State & Utopia. I also vote for The Law. 2 Votes for The Law by Frederich Bastiat. Anyone else checking this forum out, please not we are voting on our book for the book of the month. Save your comments for when we start reading the our pick. (1) Anarchy State & Utopia (2) The Law

1. The Law by Frederich Bastiat. 2. Human Action by Ludwig Von Mises. P.S. http://freeaudio.org/fbastiat/thelaw.html ..................... Link (copy and paste) for Bastiat's ''the Law'' audiobook. Free download. Peace

I shall also vote for "The Law"

Anarchy, State and Utopia & The Virtue of Selfishness get my votes. 

The Virtue of Selfishness

Tbh, I chose this one a friend of mine who is an Objectivist (I definitely am not) recommended it to me a few months back and I've been meaning to read it ever since. It deals with important issues such as how a libertarian should live and what his code of ethics should be. I have some fundamental disagreements with Rand that I would like to explore as I believe there are elements of Objectivism which are incompatible with a Praxeological approach to the social sciences. (Hopefully there are a few Randroids here to debate me :-)

As a bonus, it's not excessively long (138 pages) and it's available online for free.

We are now at:

(4) The Law

(2) Anarchy, Stateand Utopia

(1) Virtue of Selfishness

AdrianHealy, definitely want your participation but you've got to pick one or the other for this month. Other people who are just posting "this is my first choice, this is my second" I'm just tallying their first choice. Save your second choices for the second month. We've got nothin' but time folks.

Another quick post of the list:

(4) The Law - Frederich Bastiat

(0) Human Action - Ludwig von Mises

(0) Economics In One Lesson - Henry Hazlitt

(0) The State - Anthony De Jasay

(1) The Virtue of Selfishness - Ayn Rand

(0) How an Economy Grows & Why it Doesn't - Irwin A. Schiff

(2) Anarchy, State & Utopia - Robert Noznick

(0) Hamilton's Curse - Tom DiLorenzo

Dont know if I still have time, but one more vote for Anarchy, State and Utopia

Before I cast my vote I would like to make a suggestion. If Human action is chosen (which is unlikely) or a book of similar complexity and size, then that is something where instead of doing the whole book over a month, we instead do either a chapter or more. 

With that said, I cast my two respective votes for... 

The Law & Human Action.

I just finished ASU last month - wouldn't mind discussing it with people here. I vote for The Law as well, but I'd suggest possibly reading both and doing a thread for each, maybe?

(6) The Law - Frederich Bastiat

(0) Human Action - Ludwig von Mises

(0) Economics In One Lesson - Henry Hazlitt

(0) The State - Anthony De Jasay

(1) The Virtue of Selfishness - Ayn Rand

(0) How an Economy Grows & Why it Doesn't - Irwin A. Schiff

(3) Anarchy, State & Utopia - Robert Noznick

(0) Hamilton's Curse - Tom DiLorenzo

-Human Action seems to be the second pick of many, but for our purposes folks, I'm only tallying the first picks. I have a feeling September is going to be either the month of Human Action, or Anarchy State and Utopia. We'll see. Still a chance one of these could pull ahead. Remember: VOTING IS STILL GOING ON UNTIL 11:59PM OF FRIDAY, JULY 30TH.

WELL FOLKS, IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

Our first book of the book of the Month Club is "The Law" by Bastiat. Anyone who is reading or has read it feel free to post here!

 

• What did you find surprising about the facts introduced in this book?
• How has reading this book changed your opinion of a certain person or topic?
• Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does he or she achieve this?
• If the author is writing on a debatable issue, does he or she give proper consideration to all sides the debate? Does he or she seem to have a bias?
• How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?

I'm glad this book was chosen for two reasons 1. I just got done reading it :) 2. I am a criminal justice major in my last week of school, about to fulfill my final obligation to receive my BS. It would seem that being a criminal justice major and a member of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute is quite a contradiction in terms, but this book makes an important point that I have considered over the past few months. Namely, that societies filled with people who want to use the coercive powers of the government to meet economic ends, at the expense of other people via theft, etc. get what they deserve in the end. "The Law Is Justice." However, I still would argue that what the book does not take into account is that it is quite impossible for the public to know everything their government is doing. Big Business owners who appreciate protectionism through tariffs and so forth do tend to do well as a result, and at the expense of others. This is a point that isn't really discussed in the book, as much of the attention goes towards progressive taxation... less is directed towards say licensing requirements and certifications, and in part the merit system as a whole. Not to mention flaws in property law. That being said, I found the book a fascinating read. Although I do see the point that being involved in law enforcement does not mean a disregard for justice completely, I still don't feel it's the right place for me, having been introduced to people such as Murray Rothbard and Ludwig Von Mises, and taking a look at the injustice going on within every nation on the face of the planet. I will not be a part of it. This also breeds the question: How can The Law be justice if the organized, planned society is organized injustice?

So, it's September. What's next? Did anyone finished Law?

I did finish it... thought it was excellent. I am reading Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market now, and it will take longer than September to read so i'm probably out of this one, lol.

Finished The Law weeks ago, just been too busy with school to bother with Internet forums. We probably shouldn't have restarted this the same month that school begins.