The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age

The headline was content in the book, suggesting that the book will never be popular and that the authors expect not to make any money from the book. Very interesting book, where it gives you a lesson in human history, one that wasn't taught to me in public school, and how life hasn't really changed much in 2000 years, where we still depend upon certain things. The authors explain the principals of life, which is protection from violence and plunder, and how to protect yourself, or determine if the price of protection is too great, and you should move. It compares ideologies such as our Liberal Welfare Democracy to Communism, and how politics come into play. It goes into the concepts of money and how it works. After your learn all this, it tries to predict the future and suggest how you should be aware of using this information to benefit yourself in the future. I saw this book as an extension to Cash Flow Quadrant, but it is not, for I think Robert Kiyosaki should of read this book first before writing Cash Flow Quadrant. At first this book was hard to read, but I got use to the writing style and can now jam through pages with ease. The density of information within the book is very high, small text that covers most of the pages. I'm only 1/2 way through the book, and can't wait to finish it, so I can read my next book. I wish I would have read this book 20 years ago, but I wasn't aware of it's existence. For me, I give this book a 5 star rating, because I can understand the information presented, and actually use it. But you need to be a certain type of person to appreciate this book, for it's not for everyone. This book is meant for one who thinks like a capitalist, someone who is self employed, but an employee would learn a great deal from this book as well, or even one of our politicians in Government. If your looking to take your brain to the next level, figure out why we pay taxes, and understand the concepts of inflation and why our nation state does what it does, then buy this book. Otherwise, pick another book.

This book is by far one of the best books I have ever read. Extremely insightful.

I loved the eloquent argument that Governments are formed as a consequence of violence. When the productivity of societies increase, there is a rise in violence. Organisations (like governments or the mafia) form in order to provide protection and civil order - taxation is actually protection-money. The historical references to the medieval era, were very revealing - especially, in terms of highlighting the dogma of the church, at the time. Comparisons to current times, helps explain similar dogma, continually propagated by the mainstream media and celebrities. Although this book was written in the late 1990s; much of the commentary on political corruption, identity politics, social welfare and the decline of industrial nations (economically and morally) rivals the current talking points today, in 2021. Finally, the message that society will be driven by economic and mega political conditions, rather than mainstream narratives; is encouraging to the critical thinker. The most hopeful message is that the Governments of the future will have less power to confiscate the wealth generated by the Information Age. The intangible nature of digital property; the security of cryptography and the global nature of the Information Age, will represent the new mega political conditions of society.

The sovereign individual has many things written within it’s pages, that have if not fully, at least partly come to pass. The most notable predictions are as follows: 1) the emergence of the cyber economy ( e- commerce) 2) the emergence of cyber cash ( crypto currency ) 3) The rise of Telemedicine 4) the rise of the temp workforce ( work done as a task, rather than a Job) 5) the emergence of entertainment/news on demand ( Streaming ) Perhaps, the only downside to this book is that it starts with predictions about the year 2000 which are laughable today. The worst part? It devotes an entire chapter to these wildly inaccurate ideas. For this reason alone, I cannot in good Conscience give it five stars.

A great book, many of it's predictions have become history. A little dated now, since it's predictions have come to pass.

Its great the overview of cycles as the authors see it - given that the book was written in the early 90s, impressive how generally their predictions have played out to date. It's not an easy read, quite packed, learned a lot and interested to see how the rest of the predictions play out

Great, thanks.

This is the best book I've ever read on economics, politics and history (I don't know exactly which category to put it in). I didn't really like the first 3 chapters, because it was filled with unsupported, somewhat incredible forecasts of changing forms of sovereignty. But by chapter 4 or 5 they started supporting their claims with historical information and I was mesmerized. The authors claim that the information age is radically transforming sovereignty and restructuring or dissolving "nationhood". It is doing this by transcending the "tyranny of place". When all you need is a laptop computer and an internet connection to earn your income, you can live anywhere (especially if it's a satellite internet connection). You might choose to move to a place where the services provided by government are worth the taxes you pay. If that is the case, then governments, rather than seeing their high talent, high income citizens flee, will start competing for them by lowering taxes and perhaps dismantling the welfare state. That's the general idea, but the authors do a much better job of explaining it than I do. This is one of the most important books that I've read in the last ten years.

The authors explain that the first stage of society, Hunting and Gathering, worked for eons. The second stage, Agriculture, spread over millennia, and the third stage, Industrial, took centuries. The fourth stage, Information, will happen during a lifetime. The authors foresaw that individuals will be liberated to educate and motivate themselves, allowing genius to flourish. Cyberspace will render race, gender, age, sexual proclivity, and appearance to be unimportant. Cryptocurrency will prompt power-hungry politicians to lie, tax excessively, and print money that causes inflation. The authors foresee an eventual breakdown of nation states. Their final analyses ends with a hope of optimism. This book was written in 1997 and follows their book, The Great Reckoning. I wish they could write a sequel today.

The Individual will be part of the main revolution in the next decades. Honesty, skills labours and knowledge will be important and essencial

The Sovereign Individual is incredibly prescient for a book written in 1997. Had I read this book in its year of publication, I probably would have dismissed it as an alarmist-elitist rant. But reading it after two decades since its publication, I am quite surprised how accurate many of its prediction are. The authors rightly predicted the role of cyber economy, crypto-currencies, income disparity, automation of low skilled jobs, rise of nationalism & extreme right-wing groups across the globe, rise of neo-luddites and the role of silicon valley entrepreneurs. Although many other events predicted in the book haven't happened yet, I am inclined to agree with most of their views. The main thesis of the book is that, in the twenty-first century, citizens will be more of a customer to governments and governments will act more as a service provider than a political institution. A thought provoking read. Highly recommended

For the ones that wish to expand their visions, or a simply knowledge hunger, or lost and wish to comprehend the deep structure of things. One of the best book iv read on this topic.

Best book to read