The Sovereign Individual: Strategies for Thriving in the Digital Age

Walter H: 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.

United States on Nov 15, 2023

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

Brazil on Sep 29, 2023

jkirkerx: 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...

United States on Aug 14, 2023

R. McLeod: A superb insight into the world, that is particularly remarkable given how long ago it was written. I first read the hard copy of this years ago, so I'm very pleased that a Kindle version has been released.

United Kingdom on Jul 20, 2023

Asaad KundoAsaad Kundo: Get this one & prepare yourself for future ahead, it predicted alot of the events since the 90s, not saying it's a certain yet it's very accurate based on intelegent analysis.

United States on Apr 23, 2023

Kindle Customer: This is an evergreen masterpiece.

Never ceases to amaze me how precisely these two gentlemen could predict the factors and processes influencing our future in the digital age.

Absolutely mandatory book.

United States on Apr 16, 2023

Ed Cleaves: 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...

United States on Nov 28, 2021

Robert Ellis: Other than the Y2K portion near the beginning, which after the introduction I skipped for sake of relevancy - I will add that as the authors discuss potential consequences, they brushed lightly on what physical and digital attacks on Information infrastructure might look like, only touching upon consequences, but a few incidents that are more practically comparable that occurred this past year: Colonial pipeline, Suez tanker, the Nashville van bomb to name a few off the top of my head follow the similar vein of the Y2K sections covered in this book.

There is a great fount of practical knowledge in this book for any person wishing to empower themselves through a reconceptualization of their identity as it relates to the taxes paid for services rendered, and other pesky problems that come with being a citizen. I think they had rich and powerful people in mind when they were conceiving the idea of the sovereign individual, but the principles will apply for less wealthy people that still wish to graduate out of the Industrial Age economy structure and into the Information Age economy.

My advice for anyone reading this book for the sake of self-empowerment: begin to think...

Canada on Jun 29, 2021

Alex: Although written before the turn of the Millennium, this book predicted many of the social, political, and technological changes that have come to pass in the first two decades of the twenty-first century.

Some other reviewers here have seen fit to condemn this book for what they perceive to be its authors' unpalatable "extreme far right libertarian" ideology or "selfish misanthropic" attitude. From my reading of the book, these accusations are unfair. The authors do have a detectable libertarian bent, but this does not detract from the rigour of their historical analysis or the clarity of the reasoning by which they arrive at their conclusions and predictions. Throughout the book their concern is reality, and what shape it will take in the future that is now our present.

By any objective measurement, the authors were immensely successful in their efforts, identifying and anticipating the many of the fundamental technological and social forces that have shaped the last twenty years of world history. Among their predictions (written, let us remember, in 1997) are:

Political:
- "A decline in the status and power of traditional elites, as well as a decline in...

United Kingdom on Mar 16, 2019

vikingraider: This is an excellent, well-researched book into the subject of the future. It predicts a decline in the power of indebted governments to tax and control our lives, mainly due to globalisation and the internet. They may well be right longer-term, but for now, their shorter-term prediction of governmental attempts to maintain and strengthen their control, swimming against the tide, have proved highly accurate, as has their predictions on the decline of national currencies and the strength of gold and silver as stores of wealth.

My only criticism is that it drags on for too long. What it describes could have been said more clearly and concisely in a book half the size. Well worth the read though, and maybe one to prepare ourselves for in future.

United Kingdom on Apr 18, 2008