What literature, persons, ‘things’ influenced you into being interested into Austrian Economics.
Guys, if you have a GF and can speak somewhat on their behalf your feedback is appreciated!
-Cliff
Peter Schiff and Ron Paul.
Woops… I’m not a female.
My wife hates it when I start rambling about economics and government. She rather watch Survivor or Gossip Girls. She came from a very Liberal family. I am wearing off on her.
Ask her if she supports the government taking away a portion of your income. If she says “yes,” then for Christmas tell her, “I would have bought you a better present, but the government took my money.”
I don’t think there’s any particular reason to infer the opposite sex will have reasons or influences guiding them to AE or libertarianism diametrically different from “us guys.”
Having said that, a girl I know and am pretty close to told me she got into this stuff after reading Murray Rothbard’s “What has Government done to our money?” after finding it on a homeschool curriculum.
I would reason a hell of a lot of girls and guys found out through Ron Paul…
Is it me, or are the Mises forums kind of a sauagefest? [:^)]
I agree. I don’t think there would be any real difference.
I did, hehe…
Bell Curve! [:p]
I think internet forums are pretty generally sausagefests[8-|]. Still a lot tend to be much duller than this forum. Indeed I can’t stand anymore most of the people who post on the one I used to contribute to.
They are comparatively few, but the Mises Circles and other libertarian conferences generally attract some very cute girls. I mean, there’s like five compared to one hundred dudes, but if you think about it most guys are older, so your odds are better than what you might think.
You would swear that he’s actually Neo.
I’m about to do something that I’ll probably regret. My girlfriend is an economics major. She’s also obsessed with Harry Potter, and she really wants me to read the books. So I told her I’ll read all seven books if she reads one book of my choosing. She’s pressuring me to hurry and pick one for her.
I want to get her into AE, so which book should I choose? I kind of want to have her read Human Action. I figured since I’m reading SEVEN books, I should have her read something that’ll take her at least half the time it takes me to read those. What do you guys recommend?
If she’s an economics major, I would choose something like Human Action. On the other hand, a book like de Soto’s Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles might be easier to read (the language is more modern), and is pretty powerful and persuasive in its own right (even if it’s less complete, as it is not a treatise on economics). But, if she likes de Soto’s book, maybe she’d be willing to read Human Action afterwards.
Uh, I hate reading fiction…
Well, that sucks, if she had to read 7 then that would be a lot better. But, idk, perhaps Man, Economy, and State by Murray Rothbard?
I don’t know how long the books she recommended are in total numbers of pages, but I think Human Action is a fair match since its not a trivial thing to read, especially compared to Harry Potter and similiar fiction books.
Human Action, more than anything else has convinced me of the Austrian case, so I’d recommend it but you’ll have to judge for yourself if its the kind of book that would suit your GF. I myself came from a physicsy background as opposed to economics, and hence was vearing towards positivism…then Von Mises hit me for a home run!
My world view has not been the same since[H]
de Soto is a good idea. But I think I’ll try to get her to read that after MES or HA. So I think it’s going to be between the latter two. MES reads more like an economics textbook and she might take in everything more easily in it. HA, however, is HA. It’d be difficult for one to read it and not become an Austrian. Which should it be, guys? This is hard.
Ship her ass off to a communist country for a few years… she will get the hint really quick…
How else is she politically inclined? Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged?
Otherwise… definitely Man, Economy and State WITH Power and Market [:D]
Make a deal. She reads MES or HA. You read HP. Though I would recomend the Wheel of Time series instead.
A)Still I find this threads topic to be an important one. An army of female AE followers would be a devistating force to reckon with. Us guys know how much of a force a single girl alone is. 
B) I want to explore ways of getting my own GF interested in this.
My girlfriend of eight years is a libertarian. She understands the principles and thinks they are good way to live. She has some very minor disagreements, but that could be her projecting. She is usually quite indifferent to politics as she never felt voting or campaigning ever helped make people free, only piss freedom loving people off. of course, she may end up being a libertarian-anarchist if i keep it up.
She doesn’t have any interest in learning economics. she’s an artist, she can paint, draw, whatever. she makes a living as a graphic designer for a web firm, she also has a side job as a photographer. i’ve been using her new side job as a self-employed professional photographer to see how economics works for her. she likes it, but i doubt it’ll get her to care enough to read any of my economic books. hell, i haven’t read’em all yet.
you know, i haven’t really tried to get her to read any of the books.. but i bet if she read ‘economics in one lesson’ or ‘economics for real people’, she might like those. a basic understanding of how economics works.
Unless you want her head full of anarchist strawmen, I suggest putting the HA on hold. Though so far, it’s not aggrandized to the extent as in Liberty and Property where Mises literally channels Dr Jekyll and Mr.Hyde.