School made me hate reading. Prior to around 7th grade, I used to read a ton. Easily one like "adult-sized" book every two weeks. Up until that point, school reading wasn't much of a thing. We might read a book at school or the books were honestly so below the level I could read them in spare time at school over a couple days.
Suddenly, they want to heap on all these books. I didn't even hate most of the books if I'm honest, but it's all the twisting them around to dig up all these supposed hidden meanings and analyse the shit out of them. Don't dare submit a paper questioning the approved analysis either. I eventually said to hell with it about 9th grade and just started buying those cliff note things and making up essays the night before. I would do just as well anyway.
The last paper I ever submitted to an English/Literature/Writing type class was the final paper for a college course, it was a pretty open ended type assignment and I did it on why the overanalysis of literature was a bad thing. It was very detailed, cited, etc. Far and away the most time I spent on a college paper for such a class. It was also the worst grade by far I ever got on a college paper for such a class. Yeah, the one I forgot about and wrote at 2am the night before it was due full of drivel did better.
I was almost 30 before I really got back into reading again, and still not at the level of kid me. Albeit, I have less time to spend on it now.
I didn't read much until my mom made me a deal that I could see Jurassic Park once I read the book (which was a crazy deal to make, because the book was way more violent and "adult" than the movie).
Then after that I started reading all the Michael Crichton books, and 10-12 year old me got to learn about sexual harassment and murdering prostitutes and all the other fun stuff in his books that my mom would absolutely never let me see if it was in a movie.
I would totally not be surprised by it being intentional. Older men at least those I know about seemed to highly value reading and literature. My granddad always pushed me to read, and when he got older he was more well off and bought up a pretty big collection of high end books of just classic literature that he'd let me read and now myself and my brother split up when he passed. Even my great-grandfather from a totally different part of the family, who was very much greasy old school blue collar held on to some books I have my hands on now. They are compliations of 20-40 page writings on different things in history, written with detail and intelligence the modern world would have you believe no one but those with a list of degrees could even understand. Men used to value this stuff, yet now how many average-age adult men read at all?
I remember a teacher saying that getting the boys in her class to read was easy once she had them read stories about action/adventure. The curriculum only had books that appealed to girls.
It's totally intentional. If you disconnect men from literature, which is their culture and heritage, how long is it before they can be told they're anything? "Oh, American has ALWAYS been majority minority!" "Oh, the Founders were extreme democrats, there were no guns and MUH ABORTIONS in colonial America!"
They also pick some boring new books too, always about either the holocoaster or oppressed black women. I was interested in sci fi and military stuff and I only ever got to read two things that I liked ("For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "1984"). Nowadays I read a lot of technical books on military equipment, aircraft, maritime, science stuff. Nothing we would have ever read in Middle or High school.
As with everything. Look for who pities the ox instead of the donkey.
I didn't come out bitter like the above guy, but I came out with a superiority complex the size of Santa's naughty list filtered to Google employees.
My college peers were pathetic. They wrote like shit. The standards were pure unremitting garbage. And the professors were complete idiots. They couldn't catch subtext for one, and read so haphazardly that started replacing whole pages with spaghetti logic and still passing.
Red October is fantastic. My first Clancy book and I was hooked from the first few pages, it was so much fun trying to piece together this conspiracy and how the pieces will move before it all happens. A sufficient level of technical explanation for the nerds like me as well.
I heard that. In the book it’s Muslim terrorists and not Russian right? Was Clancy in the military or did he just have very good contacts for Military info?
My mom made us go to the library from a young age and also made us listen to cassette tapes that had vocabulary words to learn. At the time I hated it but I can thank my mother that I’m a heavy reader today
Alfred Marshall's Principles of Economics is much shorter than Wealth of Nations, although not necessarily less dense. Marshall was a mathematician first and foremost, so there's a lot of focus on supply and demand curves and other basic mathematical principles of economics. It's less philosophical and more scientific in its overall approach.
I can see that. I didn’t realize it until I was a little older but my first economic lessons were understanding why certain sports cards or comic books were worth more than others (collector of the two). So I learned about demand and scarcity
Start with the classic Keynes vs Hayek Rap Battle. Then anything by Hayek - of course my preference is Fatal Conceit. Another good book is The World Economy since World War II by Kenneth Galbraith
Finally home, so I can answer this question; 'New Ideas from Dead Economists' goes into the overall history of economics. Not sure I'd call it 'light reading', but it's certainly lighter than Weath of Nations, and goes more into the historical aspect as well as explaining what is what.
Forget the author but "Economix" is a basic historical outline of economic system in graphic novel form. There's definitely a perspective, but I found the visual style makes all the data and models much easier to digest.
The Spice And Wolf light novel series is basically all about economics, but coached in a romance/adventure/fantasy story. Might be high school minimum, though, not middle school, contained some nudity.
Though that specific one may need to wait, the idea behind it is sound: Economics isn't interesting in a vaccuum. It's incredibly important, and if you grasp the importance is can become interesting, but it's inherently boring. Finding a storybook that dwells upon economics but is still a storybook isn't a bad approach to get a kid into the subject.
You're probably better off doing hands-on experiences like selling lemonade or car washes, as it's more stimulating than a book and it gets them a little spending money. Be sure to withhold their money for taxes, or the IRS will go after them.
The three books I would recommend to anyone trying to read up vaguely conservative thought are below, and I'd recommend them to college freshmen, not middle schoolers:
Starship Troopers
Why patriotism is necessary for a state to function.
How to be a Conservative
Basic concepts of don't print money, don't destroy traditions, upholding tradition takes work, don't destroy laws, and wanting all of these things is cool.
Vision of the Annointed
What the enemy-there is one, it hates you-is doing, and how to spot it.
I'm not even sure of the value of teaching free market economics other than as a jumping off point. At this point now the only people who still think the market is free are shitlibs. The rest of us know better. Teaching inflation should be heavily underlined that the banker printing the money is unaffected by the effects of inflation but the borrower spending the money is not - and that the banker is never neutral, and has political interests.
This is a world where the elites just flip presidency switches for the UK and US from red to blue at will, and switches global lockdowns off and on at will. given the choice between money and power, the person in charge of printing money will always burn through the money to protect their power. Basic economics will never teach you this.
You are much, much, better served figuring out when the Democrat Party are going to sperg out and get the Fed printing, and understanding the psychology of the average Boomer and how they think the world works than you are reading dcf charts.
Real answer wait until highschool and then Hamilton's Report on Credit and Report on Manufacturing.
Sowell is libertarian nonsense. skip it.
the interesting thing about Adam Smith and Wealth of Nations is that it was published in 1776, right around when Hamilton issued his reports. Hamilton's views are anchored in reality, the specifics of the nation, and concrete, measured information. Adam Smith is a inductivist, waving his hands around and saying, "due to this abstract theory... it clearly follows". No Adam. It does not. Observations and reality trump generalized, failing theories every single time.
Thanks. Those are the first two books that came to mind. I still like Sowell’s work though. I actually have The Federalist Papers and some other stuff by Hamilton. I’m no economist and have just read books on it but it amazes me how people with degrees in economics push thinks like a super high minimum wage or “living wage” with no basis in reality.
Thanks. I didn’t even think of that
School made me hate reading. Prior to around 7th grade, I used to read a ton. Easily one like "adult-sized" book every two weeks. Up until that point, school reading wasn't much of a thing. We might read a book at school or the books were honestly so below the level I could read them in spare time at school over a couple days.
Suddenly, they want to heap on all these books. I didn't even hate most of the books if I'm honest, but it's all the twisting them around to dig up all these supposed hidden meanings and analyse the shit out of them. Don't dare submit a paper questioning the approved analysis either. I eventually said to hell with it about 9th grade and just started buying those cliff note things and making up essays the night before. I would do just as well anyway.
The last paper I ever submitted to an English/Literature/Writing type class was the final paper for a college course, it was a pretty open ended type assignment and I did it on why the overanalysis of literature was a bad thing. It was very detailed, cited, etc. Far and away the most time I spent on a college paper for such a class. It was also the worst grade by far I ever got on a college paper for such a class. Yeah, the one I forgot about and wrote at 2am the night before it was due full of drivel did better.
I was almost 30 before I really got back into reading again, and still not at the level of kid me. Albeit, I have less time to spend on it now.
I didn't read much until my mom made me a deal that I could see Jurassic Park once I read the book (which was a crazy deal to make, because the book was way more violent and "adult" than the movie).
Then after that I started reading all the Michael Crichton books, and 10-12 year old me got to learn about sexual harassment and murdering prostitutes and all the other fun stuff in his books that my mom would absolutely never let me see if it was in a movie.
Now that you mention it, Jurassic Park was probably the first "adult" book I read.
I would totally not be surprised by it being intentional. Older men at least those I know about seemed to highly value reading and literature. My granddad always pushed me to read, and when he got older he was more well off and bought up a pretty big collection of high end books of just classic literature that he'd let me read and now myself and my brother split up when he passed. Even my great-grandfather from a totally different part of the family, who was very much greasy old school blue collar held on to some books I have my hands on now. They are compliations of 20-40 page writings on different things in history, written with detail and intelligence the modern world would have you believe no one but those with a list of degrees could even understand. Men used to value this stuff, yet now how many average-age adult men read at all?
I remember a teacher saying that getting the boys in her class to read was easy once she had them read stories about action/adventure. The curriculum only had books that appealed to girls.
It's totally intentional. If you disconnect men from literature, which is their culture and heritage, how long is it before they can be told they're anything? "Oh, American has ALWAYS been majority minority!" "Oh, the Founders were extreme democrats, there were no guns and MUH ABORTIONS in colonial America!"
They also pick some boring new books too, always about either the holocoaster or oppressed black women. I was interested in sci fi and military stuff and I only ever got to read two things that I liked ("For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "1984"). Nowadays I read a lot of technical books on military equipment, aircraft, maritime, science stuff. Nothing we would have ever read in Middle or High school.
As with everything. Look for who pities the ox instead of the donkey.
I didn't come out bitter like the above guy, but I came out with a superiority complex the size of Santa's naughty list filtered to Google employees.
My college peers were pathetic. They wrote like shit. The standards were pure unremitting garbage. And the professors were complete idiots. They couldn't catch subtext for one, and read so haphazardly that started replacing whole pages with spaghetti logic and still passing.
I actually have some thick Clancy books that I haven’t gotten around to reading. Red October and Sum of All Fears being two I want to read first
Red October is fantastic. My first Clancy book and I was hooked from the first few pages, it was so much fun trying to piece together this conspiracy and how the pieces will move before it all happens. A sufficient level of technical explanation for the nerds like me as well.
I heard that. In the book it’s Muslim terrorists and not Russian right? Was Clancy in the military or did he just have very good contacts for Military info?
My mom made us go to the library from a young age and also made us listen to cassette tapes that had vocabulary words to learn. At the time I hated it but I can thank my mother that I’m a heavy reader today
Ugh. I still remember having to slog through 'Flowers for Algernon' as a kid.
I could read through Jurrassic Park in a day or two, but that book took me weeks. I fucking hated that book. Still do.
Maybe schools should try and push reading for pleasure than trying to cram some sort of philosophical sob story down my throat.
I didn’t care for Flowers for Algernon as a kid but like it more looking back at it.
Alfred Marshall's Principles of Economics is much shorter than Wealth of Nations, although not necessarily less dense. Marshall was a mathematician first and foremost, so there's a lot of focus on supply and demand curves and other basic mathematical principles of economics. It's less philosophical and more scientific in its overall approach.
Look, there is nothing scientific about economics. It is politics and sociology intersecting with the interests of nations.
I humbly suggest Henry Carey as good economics reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Charles_Carey
Go to the primary sources and read what the man wrote, not what others read into him for their own agendas.
I think its important to differentiate between micro and macro economics.
Will look that up as well
Thanks!
I can see that. I didn’t realize it until I was a little older but my first economic lessons were understanding why certain sports cards or comic books were worth more than others (collector of the two). So I learned about demand and scarcity
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? Inflation and MMT with zero jargon.
Freakanomics. About unintended consequences and incentives.
The latter for an advanced kid. The former is written for middle schoolers and hits everything easily and simply.
It's also literally the only economics book I've read that defined inflation correctly.
Thanks. I gave my niece the turtle twins when she was little but I’ll check out what you mentioned
Start with the classic Keynes vs Hayek Rap Battle. Then anything by Hayek - of course my preference is Fatal Conceit. Another good book is The World Economy since World War II by Kenneth Galbraith
Finally home, so I can answer this question; 'New Ideas from Dead Economists' goes into the overall history of economics. Not sure I'd call it 'light reading', but it's certainly lighter than Weath of Nations, and goes more into the historical aspect as well as explaining what is what.
Thanks! I like the title as well
Forget the author but "Economix" is a basic historical outline of economic system in graphic novel form. There's definitely a perspective, but I found the visual style makes all the data and models much easier to digest.
Michael Goodwin, Dan E. Burr, Joel Bakan, David Bach.
The Spice And Wolf light novel series is basically all about economics, but coached in a romance/adventure/fantasy story. Might be high school minimum, though, not middle school, contained some nudity.
Though that specific one may need to wait, the idea behind it is sound: Economics isn't interesting in a vaccuum. It's incredibly important, and if you grasp the importance is can become interesting, but it's inherently boring. Finding a storybook that dwells upon economics but is still a storybook isn't a bad approach to get a kid into the subject.
Great idea! Thanks!
You're probably better off doing hands-on experiences like selling lemonade or car washes, as it's more stimulating than a book and it gets them a little spending money. Be sure to withhold their money for taxes, or the IRS will go after them.
Economics is such a tricky subject to approach from an introduction perspective because of how complex and controversial it is...
You're better off talking to a middle schooler about it than books.
Good idea. Thanks!
Or do trading exercises, most people just need to understand supply/demand curves and opportunity costs/relative efficiencies
Good idea.
The three books I would recommend to anyone trying to read up vaguely conservative thought are below, and I'd recommend them to college freshmen, not middle schoolers:
Starship Troopers
Why patriotism is necessary for a state to function.
How to be a Conservative
Basic concepts of don't print money, don't destroy traditions, upholding tradition takes work, don't destroy laws, and wanting all of these things is cool.
Vision of the Annointed
What the enemy-there is one, it hates you-is doing, and how to spot it.
I'm not even sure of the value of teaching free market economics other than as a jumping off point. At this point now the only people who still think the market is free are shitlibs. The rest of us know better. Teaching inflation should be heavily underlined that the banker printing the money is unaffected by the effects of inflation but the borrower spending the money is not - and that the banker is never neutral, and has political interests.
This is a world where the elites just flip presidency switches for the UK and US from red to blue at will, and switches global lockdowns off and on at will. given the choice between money and power, the person in charge of printing money will always burn through the money to protect their power. Basic economics will never teach you this.
You are much, much, better served figuring out when the Democrat Party are going to sperg out and get the Fed printing, and understanding the psychology of the average Boomer and how they think the world works than you are reading dcf charts.
Greatly appreciated. Actually read Vision of the Annointed not to long ago and Starship Troopers is one of my faves. Thanks again
Start an ebay business with them.
Real answer wait until highschool and then Hamilton's Report on Credit and Report on Manufacturing.
Sowell is libertarian nonsense. skip it.
the interesting thing about Adam Smith and Wealth of Nations is that it was published in 1776, right around when Hamilton issued his reports. Hamilton's views are anchored in reality, the specifics of the nation, and concrete, measured information. Adam Smith is a inductivist, waving his hands around and saying, "due to this abstract theory... it clearly follows". No Adam. It does not. Observations and reality trump generalized, failing theories every single time.
Thanks. Those are the first two books that came to mind. I still like Sowell’s work though. I actually have The Federalist Papers and some other stuff by Hamilton. I’m no economist and have just read books on it but it amazes me how people with degrees in economics push thinks like a super high minimum wage or “living wage” with no basis in reality.
So glad you want to be left alone by responding to my posts.
Smith1980 is by far one of the nicest people here. If you think he's an asshole, I suspect that the problem is with you, not him.
Even if true, that has nothing to do with what I said.
I’ve been guilty of holding grudges
Pretty sure everyone, including the actual NatSocs, think Bluestorm is the asshole.
Ah, how beautiful
are your pallid screams,
when we freemen
seek to build a future free
of your kind's parasitism.
-R
Indeed, your owners would forbid you from knowledge that would free mankind from being dependent upon them.