‘My Friend Is a Communist,’ Reader Writes

A reader writes:

A friend of mine is a communist and he recently asked me if there was a libertarian/ free market book that I could suggest that might sway his opinion or at least challenge him. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some possibilities, in no particular order:

(1) A Farewell to Marx, by David Conway

(2) Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis (journal article, not a book), by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

(3) Two of my own books that might help: the purely economics portions of The Church and the Market, which I wrote as an introduction to Austrian economics, and my 2011 book Rollback, which covers quite a bit of ground.

(4) Or you could go hardcore on him and try For a New Liberty by Murray N. Rothbard.

Z

How about Mises’ essay ‘Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth’
Lou Bjostad

For A New Liberty is the best choice. It isn’t that long, it doesn’t require big leaps of faith, and it’s only $5 on iBooks. I’m halfway through it right now, and it’s very readable.
Anonymous

I think when making this choice it’s helpful to understand how he’s motivated. Does he talk about justice or statistics and outcomes a lot? If he’s more morally motivated then you want a book that focuses on the immorality of collectivism or at least contrasts it’s immorality or liberty.
If it’s outcomes then you probably want something that focuses on the progressive era or else public choice to show how natural monopolies must fail and how regulation is the modern mechanism of maintaining them.

Someone motivated more morally/emotionally will rarely be moved by explaining to them economic fact.

Someone more logically/outcomes motivated will be little swayed by moral arguments when he sees what he has been conditioned to believe is the result of the free market causing harm.
Mechanized

Or one could acquire the PDF for free:

http://mises.org/books/newliberty.pdf
John

I think For a New Liberty would be a good choice. I doubt you can get your friend to read all of Human Action but I think that chapter 3, “Economics and the Revolt Against Reason” which is under 20 pages is worth a read. http://mises.org/Books/humanaction.pdf
Jim

If you need something brief, well written, and not-so-challenging for a book, I’d suggest Inclined to Liberty by Louis Carabini. It’s free at Mises.org.
yoyoma

“Socialism” by mises?
yoyoma

and ofcourse bastiat’s “the law” and maybe even economics in one lesson? as just you know, theft is wrong even when government does it type of thing…
Luke Sunderland

“Requiem for Marx” is another good choice.
JoshArizona

If a Marxist is legitimately offering to read any book you recommend, don’t squander the opportunity, make him read Rothbard!
jen

Books by libertarian leaning entrepreneurs: CEO of Whole Foods wrote Conscious Capitalism.

While Rothard and other books are academic, perhaps your friend will want to hear from someone who has real life experience in the business world trying to make money in a clean way, instead of feeding off the hands of the fed and government or having links to government like Google and Warren Buffet.
willbuth

A key part to dismantling the so-called exploitation theory is “time-preference”. I hope your communist friend understands time-preference well enough. If not he should read Man, Economy and State.
guest

For the moral/emotional approach, I think this is good:

“Why Marxism?” An Evening at FEE with C. Bradley Thompson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt58gg1DQGk

For the logical/outcomes approach:

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, Lecture 8 | Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGeA1Sbd4XM
Myths and Facts About Big Business
Anonymous

Science. Politics, & Gnosticism by Eric Voeglin.
Matt

Marx, and the Close of His System by Bawerk

http://mises.org/books/karlmarx.pdf
Anonymous

Depending on personality, he might be swayed by different arguments. If he’s more analytical, then some of Hoppe or Mises or Rothbard might do a better job. If he’s more concerned about emotions and feelings, then some more mainstream contemporary writings might be best. It’s not easy to introduce somebody to any form of libertarian thought though because people are taught from day 1 that the state is both their Daddy and Mommy. Telling people that they own their own lives is a shock to their system.
Liberty Belle

Gerard Casey has a video floating around in which he reads a letter from one of his former students, a once-dedicated Marxist. The student describes how two works that he read in Casey’s class “devastated” his beliefs in Marxism. I can’t remember which books, but you can probably search the video of Casey, which discusses his own book “Libertarian Anarchy Against the State.”
Anonymous

I once considered myself a Marxist. My girlfriend at the time (late 70s) described herself as a communist with a small “c”, meaning she wasn’t a Stalinist. But she supported the genocide in Cambodia because “the ends justify the means”.

Sometimes a contrast to libertarianism will shock someone out of their ideology; it did the trick for me. For example, seeing the movie Schindler’s List, knowing that’s what libertarians want to avoid. Or the book “The Black Book of Communism” to show the well-documented toll of genocides under Communist dictators. Or University of Hawaii sociologist R.J. Rummel’s catalog of the genocides perpetrated by government megamurderers at
hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM
http://www.facebook.com/mark.buraglio.7 Mark Buraglio

Just tell him, “TAXATION IS THEFT!” End of debate.