Most Helpful Customer Reviews27 of 28 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Maybury plants the seed of curiosity and makes you want more, July 28, 2002 Do not confuse the 3 star rating with a negative evaluation. Quite the opposite is true. However when reading a series like this one must put them all into perspective.
I thouroughly enjoyed this book. It was just too short, it was overpriced for the length of the text and it is simply the tip of a much larger iceburg of political, social and historical thought that makes you close it saying "is that all there is, I want more, give me MORE!" Very well done actually, because it draws you into the other eight books in the series, and if you do not have them I highly recommend getting them all before you start.
I began by reading Mr. Maybury's "Are you Liberal or Conservative, or just confused?" Which I rated at five stars and was instantly hooked. I ordered the rest of the collection (the other eight) in one batch so as to get them all together so I could get started reading them in his recommended sequence as soon as possible.
This book however was no more than an hour read or so and left me starving and anxious to get into the rest of the soup.
His books are actualy fun to read and easily pull you into the world of "Uncle Eric." His considerable talents to educate, fasincate and bring the subject down to a desktop level of understanding, helping you to contemplate what was, what is and what should be in poltics, the economy, morality, education, justice and many other subjects is refreshing.
I have since moved on to "What ever happened to penny candy?" and am just as captivated by it as the last two. This first book sets the basic foundation for all his others, which is that there are models out there that we each react to. Regardless if it is moral, social, poltical, educational, family life, community standards and the like. There are good ones and there are bad ones. There are historically proven models and there are new age individuals who want to tear many of the existing models down and rebuild them sort of speak in their own image or opinion of how things should be. This can be good or it can be devistating on our citizenry and our children. So it is vitally important to understand models in general and to create beneficial models for ourselves and society. Needless to say we are not doing very well in many areas, but fair in others.
In any case this is the starting line and the finish line is eight books away. I highly recommend Mr. Maybury's books for anyone from any background, persuasion and/or political party. If nothing else they make you think. Aristotle said, or was it Socrates? In any case one of them said, "an unexamined life is not worth living," so read these books and ponder his simple assertions against your own beleifs and ideals.
I understand he is writing more books along this same line about the world Wars and such, for our future enjoyment, I will more than likely order them as well.
A great series to read and enjoy. Good job Mr. Maybury.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Personal and Practical Advise For Financial Security, August 19, 2005
This review is from: Uncle Eric Talks About Personal, Career, and Financial Security (An Uncle Eric Book) (Paperback) Maybury begins in discussing mental models or paradigms and how all data we obtain used to support or work with our internal models and how everyone has them and the failure of many educators to understand when obtaining data. We build models, sort data and there's an excellent outline of rules to weigh the evidence. Rather than simply trust the experts, we need to look more towards the hard sciences at least in business and financial security. Now to learn and teach models, in many cases simple stories are more effective than technical data.
Two important models of Maybury are the Austrian economics, which can be read in F.A. Hayek's book, "The Road to Serfdom" and Ludwig von Mises, "Planned Chaos," and the model of old British common law, which can be read in Maybury's "What Ever Happen To Justice." While most educations do not include models, the advice is to determine models, and in doing so, Maybury gives excellent advice or steps to obtain one and gathering evidence and a working hypothesis. I've read just about the same method in a more philosophical tone by others such as Ken Wilber and find this significant advice. And see if the model predicts to some accuracy and that it can be tested against other models you already do know.
The warning is given to avoid tautology and circular reasoning, which many fall prey to. To watch our for cognitive dissonance or emotional blockage to anyone that challenges your model and to always refrain from absolutism and certainty so you can refrain from the trap of cognitive dissonance with the flexibility and ability to grow in paradigm shifts or model changes. When noticing bad and/or evil actions it is the model behind the actions and data that you need to question. The idea here is that models can merge and become integral as in alchemy and wisdom. In this the LLC or limited liability company represents a bad model, an artificial privilege at the expense of others and distorts the stock markets.
Then there is excellent advice on how to acquire helpful models in business and personal character. And since the prosperous employee model has since folded from today's large government and taxes, owning a business can more advantageous, as well as a college degree, developing skills, staying clear from dept., owning assets free from debts, that is better to own a smaller estate free from debt that a large one in high credit, recognizing investments average 4% for stability, investing in short term, watching the world situations for stability, and most important is never to assume your models are complete, always be ready to refine them and consider new models.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Meets/exceeds expectations!, June 1, 2010
This review is from: Uncle Eric Talks About Personal, Career, and Financial Security (An Uncle Eric Book) (Paperback) This book is written to educate teens and meets/exceeds expectations. Wish I would have known this information when I was a teen. I would have made wiser decisions. I read this book and will give the series to my 13 year old son.
This series of books is a great primer and provides a strong foundation in
finance,
investments, history, career, etc. Richard Maybury: job well done!
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