This book correctly asserts that we have more liberty than we often consider. In it, Harry outlines important freedom-enhacing principles that propel the reader toward self-determination and thus a fully-actualized life. This valuable book merits my highest possible recommendation. It is a virtual handbook on personal freedom.

I have owned this book for twenty years, and I still read it regularly. The opinions and guidelines on dealing with other people are the most usefull that I have ever found.

My father passed away when I was at the age of 6. In his will he left this book,"How I found freedom in an unfree world" to be given to me at the age of 18. This book is the only thing that I have that may tell me how my father would have offered advice to me in growing up. Every sentence I read feels like it is coming from the lips of my father. Thank you Harry Brown for your contribution and completion to my life.

I read "Best Laid Plans" when it first came out and it changed my life. I used to worry about not having enough money, not being able to buy a house, etc etc. I have followed Browne's advice and now have a comfortable nest egg. More importantly, when the stock market has dropped dramatically, or the events of September 11 caused worry, I slept well with regard to my finances. Safety, Safety, Safety. I know people who are now seeing therapists in an effort to get over their stock market losses, Actually, my portfolio dropped, to, but not all that much because I followed the rules of diversification that Browne advocates.

Read this book. It will change your life.

Like he did in 1994 with his book "Why Government Doesn't Work", Libertarian candidate for President Harry Browne outlines what he calls the Great Libertarian Offer and how we can achieve it. Browne shows the reader throughout the book how running to government to solve all of our problems ends up doing more harm than good. Browne puts forth a compelling case against big government and offers real and rational solutions to solve the majority of our problems.

Of Course you may not agree with everything he says, which he acknowledges, but the primary concern of reducing the size and scope of government, allowing us to make our own decisions, is something he says we all can agree on.

Though many of the same arguments can be found in 'Why Government Doesn't Work", there is also a host of new information such as Mr. Browne's budget plan, should he be elected, and new and updated material on the "issues" that have dominated this political season.

A quick and easy read for those new to Libertarianism and an excellent refresher/motivator for those already familiar.

Harry Browne continues his wonderful streak of books dedicated to liberty, libertarianism, and the free-market.

In his bid for the Presidency of the United States, he has been ignored by the mainstream media that caters to the pro-government Bush and Gore syndicate. In "The Great Libertarian Offer," Mr. Browne offers countless examples of the federal government's failure to keep promises and the resulting chaos of failed federal programs. After identifying the problems with government, he lists examples of tried free-market solutions that have brought prosperity and freedom to citizens worldwide.

Mr. Browne offers a logical and workable solution to problems that most politicians just ignore or sugar-coat. The great part about this book (and libertarianism) is the fact that this solution is very simple: get the federal government out of our lives.

While exploring this book, readers will pleasantly discover that Libertarian ideas mirror the ideas of our country's founders - ideas of liberty, privatization, and individual responsibility.

I didn't start out being cynical about politics and politicians. It is something I learned after being let down so many times. I didn't start out being pessimistic about the prospects for freedom. Looking around me---grasping reality---seemed to give me no choice. Then, I read Harry Browne's book, The Great Libertarian Offer. This book is gives me more optimism and hope for me and my children living in a society of peace and freedom than any other book I have ever read. The Great Libertarian Offer solves a riddle: How can the power of focused, well-funded special interest groups be defeated by millions of people who are too busy with daily life to lobby for constitutional government? With the Great Libertarian Offer, it can be done! Without resorting to moral arguments, Harry Browne has convinced me that he is as moral and wise a man as I have ever known. He consistently showed me that initiating force does not solve problems. He consequently has given me a potent tool for analyzing and synthesizing public policy. Whether the libertarian constraint on public policy---it cannot entail the initiation of force---is new to you or is something that you have investigated thoroughly, Harry Browne's book is a gift of fresh insights. His plain-spoken description of The Princples, and his chapters on drug prohibition, foreign policy, schools, crime, and moral posturing (among others) are each well worth the price of this book.

Here is a book that may well change the world. Have you ever read a book that is so good that you immediately bought several copies to give away. I haven't---until I read Harry Browne's The Great Libertarian Offer. I just bought five more copies from Amazon, and expect to buy more later.

I enjoy reading books filled with dire predictions several decades after publication. With the benefit of hindsight the question of why the author was or was not correct is fascinating. I highly recommend this book, as even though the author may have been wrong in certain areas, I feel that many of the themes of the book are relevant today.

Doing very well as an investor doesn't take much intelligence, just a lot of patience and a willingness to ignore fads. At the time Browne's book was first published, gold and silver were laughingstock as investments, and so was anyone who bought them. Thirty years later, we're right back to an instant replay of the Seventies. A long war, government printing money with abandon, stocks taking a beating but equity cheerleaders assuring us we won't have a ten- or fifteen-year bear market again. Browne's book is well-written, but you can save youself the money nowadays by just entering the words 'gold bull market' in your favorite Internet search engine. Paper assets go out of fashion every twenty-five to thirty years, and when they do, gold and silver do spectacularly well. That, in a nutshell, is how to profit from the coming devaluation of the U.S. dollar; sell your dollars for gold and silver, then sit tight and wait. Don't bother telling anyone, you'll just be ridiculed first and reviled later. Just like those who cleaned up by following Browne's counterculture advice when this book was on the bestseller lists in the Disco era.

---AS A SEPARATE BOOK!!!

It's the BEST introduction to economics ever written. I've owned a copy since the early 70's when I was in high school, and I've never beeen fooled by politician's promises ever since.

I've read it several times. Much of the rest of the book is dated so doesn't need to be republished.

If Harry would republish and widely distribute the first 78 pages or so of this book to all high school and college students, the politicians would have a much more difficult time fooling voters with their schemes.

A first reading of the book jacket and you would think Harry Browne is a top republican, and you would be wrong. Harry Browne is a Libertarian and this book is an unbelievable work of what the government hasn't or failed to do.

Browne's attention to details and a well throughout plans on how to fix Social Security, reduce the deficit, and eliminate federal tax and makes the government smaller and smarter is a real pleasure to read. While I think that they might be a little ambitious, I also think they are achievable.

The book shows how social programs started out with the best of intentions and have become and overburden to society. Browne's how the government has and is failing in so many areas and they ways we need to go about changing them in order to make a brighter future for everyone.

Browne conveys all of these ideas, once again proving that without the government we can save money. I must admit, I was a little skeptical about this book, but Harry Browne has convinced me that things can be brighter with a little work - well done!

Some people are able to find the simplest solutions to the largest problems and present them in ways that we can all understand. Harry Browne is one of these people. WHY GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WORK is filled with examples of how modern American government has gone wrong time and time again and the ways we can fix it. Every law, tax, and other political action has an equal or greater opposite reaction. Stop committing charity, get our troops home and out of other nation's affairs, end the insane war on drugs, and END the federal income tax. This is government the way our founding fathers envisioned it, and is presented in terms which would work today. No matter what political party you follow, READ this book.

One of the finest books I've ever read, Harry Browne exposes all the chaos big government has created from the Civil War through today. He highlights federal agencies that are in extreme need of change to the point of abolishment. Browne is a firm believer in scaling our government to its constitutionally mandated form. He reinforces the principle of Libertarianism with firm belief that his goals will be accomplished. Although his book was written in 1995 and since then several issues have happened in our nation, all the more reason to read his book because all our (Libertarian) principles should be applied today more than ever. "Why Government Doesn't Work" encourages the reader to listen/read Media messages in an active manner and when the reader does this, he can unravel all the subtle messages in the press and news.

A number of time when politician write books, they have one thing in mind - money. Harry Browne is not a politician, although he did run in 1996. What separated Browne from the "traditional" politician, Browne has core values and moral convictions.

Browne has written a book that should be on the best sellers list. This is more than self-help book, this is a life-changing book. You can find books on financial freedom, but this book shows you how to be free and independent without losing any freedoms along the way.

The book is broken down into three parts, Why you are not free, How you can be free and A new Life. Browne presentation is easy to follow and comprehend, you'll have to spend some time practicing the technique to prefect it.

I liked the book's overall message, its simple, straightforward and motivating. I found that this book, unlike so many others allows me to make the choices I think are necessary to change my life. Harry Browne has certainly done himself proud with this book. An excellent piece of writing for all to read!

I first read this book in 1974, in college and starting a career. I was hell bent on changing the world, and this book stopped me dead in my tracks. I read it now as a personal ritual once a year, it has saved me a lot of time and wasted energy, not to mention money. I've been far more successful AND happy changing my own world, and you will be too with the help of this book. Invariably the people I've met over the years who practice these principles are the most open, generous, productive, happy people I've known. Too, the ones who preach (and practice) self sacrifice and "unselfishness" (i.e., Altruism)invariably have their hand in someone elses pocket, yours perhaps, or are quite willing and eager to sacrifice others as well, you perhaps, for your own good, of course. Don't let 'em get away with it.

BUY THIS BOOK. Except for Libertarians, freedom is a concept largely ingored these days, most likely because freedom involves responsibility--for yourself--what a concept! READ THIS BOOK. Browne doesn't let anybody off the hook. GIVE THIS BOOK AWAY. Then people won't wonder how you can be so self assured and still be a nice person. You'll be an enigma! And there aren't nearly enough of us enigmas out here....

Harry Browne's 'How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World' presents his experiences of personal liberty. Undeniably an individual, Browne spells out his attitudes and approaches which brought him to where he is today. The ramifications of personal choice, societal pressures, and the desire to control others are explored in plain english. This book is truly mind altering in the best sense. It provides an opportunity to recognize individuals for who they are and treat them accordingly. Browne pushes individuals to strike out and achieve on their own merits. The goal: an autonomous, free, and happy individual. Part self-help, part inspirational, and a vibrant libertarian manifesto; it lays out the best in radical individualism. Read it.

Being a Libertarian myself, I have been a huge fan of H.Browne for almost 10years. Books such as "How I found Freedom in an Unfree World" really has changed my outlook on a lot of issues.

That being said, this book is basically the Cliff notes to his 1987, 550plus page tome entitled "Why the Best-Laid Investment Plans Usually Go Wrong". I had been hesitating in breaking up my nest egg into the specifications of the "Permanent Portfolio", so I ordered this book in order to have an update of his methods.

As you may know the Permanent Portfolio is broken into 25%Gold, 25%Cash, 25% Stocks, and 25% bonds. The book quotes 10% rate of return, but specifics about how he derives those numbers weren't too clear... Strangely, I wan't able to find any quotes/charts on the Motley Fool website (or anywhere else on a cursory Google search) so, I took out a piece of paper, went through the data available to a layman like myself on the prices of Gold, T-bills, Bonds, and Stocks (from index funds) in the 25% breakdown spelled out in the book. The verdict? Well, at the end of the period from 1993-2002, if you had invested 4K in an SP 500 index fund, you'd still be 19% ahead of where you started (peak was 88% two years ago). If you had invested in 5% CD compounded yearly, you'd be 55% ahead of the initial investment.
And, if you had a Permanent Portfolio, reorganized as directed every year, you'd be negative 21%...That's right. A ...investment was now worth [money].

I admit maybe I somehow made a mistake in my calculations... but I followed his instructions pretty closely in my calculations reaching back in the 9yr time frame. I arranged the research portfolio as I would have if my money had been riding on it. I also think if the performance of the Permanent Portfolio was better, I'd be able to find some kind of quote by a 3rd party.

In Mr Browne's defense, if you closely read the first half of his book, Rule #5 recommends the reader to beware of the "experts"...I suppose that may be his subconsious way to offset the guilt of making the sort of recommendations which may ultimately cost his readers thousands of dollars.

But don't take my anonymous word for it. Go back a few years and do a test Portfolio to see if you do better. As for myself, I'm convinced that I'd be better off hiding it all in my matress.

Honestly, while it takes longer than the thirty minutes advertised on the jacket and first few pages of the book to read through all seventeen rules, the extra time spent is well worth it. Mr. Browne offers the reader simple rules to learn and help one preserve and grow money wisely. As such, it tells you the easiest ways to lose money, and how to avoid them. Although I do not agree with his recommended approach to investing, I do agree entirely with the essence of his seventeen rules which superbly present common finance and investment misconceptions and skillfully refute them.

Speaking of his seventeen rules, the first five can be condensed into one simple rule: Forecasting = Fortune Telling. From Browne, we learn that no one can predict the future, yet many of us entrust our hard-earned money without any hesitation to modern day Gypsies- financial planners, emoneyf (mutual fund) managers and stockbrokers, who constantly tell us that they can predict the future using sophisticated eeconometricf forecasting tools. Browne reminds us that our wealth begins with what we earn, not with what we invest, and before we can invest, we have to earn. Although we can always borrow our way to bankruptcy with ease, we can borrow our way to prosperity only in our dreams. In the end, basing our earnings won through blood and sweat on the elaborate crystal-ball gazing of financial witch-doctors is the surest path to losses and total ruin.

Browne also delivers plain talk on risk, investment and speculation, and tells the reader that no one can ever hope to eliminate risk entirely. The best anyone can do is to develop realistic strategies for dealing with risk. As such, it becomes painfully clear that there is no such thing as a risk-free investment. This even includes for example so-called erisk-freef US Government Securities backed merely by the full faith and credit of the United States Government (I personally wonft think any less of the reader who laughs at that last sentence). Who knows what the future holds, and just because the worst-case scenario- a default or bankruptcy, has never happened does not necessarily mean that it can not happen tomorrow. In keeping with this, his thirteenth rule exhorts us to keep some assets outside of our native country, and is a brilliant touch. I had to laugh when I read the various calamities- natural and unnatural, which could befall our investments in our native country. However, one should keep in mind that such calamities can occur in ANY country. Also, holding some assets outside the US may not provide the secrecy or safety Browne says it will impart, simply because of the inter-connectedness of the global economy and the incredibly long reach of the US government.

At no point does the book let the reader off of the hook. We ultimately bear the responsibility for our investment decisions, and Mr. Browne is absolutely right when he says to never assume that what you have earned today can be easily earned tomorrow. Throughout the book, Mr. Browne wants to remind the reader of three things. First, it is hard to earn a dollar, yet even in the face of this generally accepted truism, there are those who want you to believe that you can get rich quick simply by making bets based on their uninformed, though highly elaborate, predictions about unpredictable events. Second, you know more than the so-called eexpertsf want you to think you know. The experts want you to disregard your common sense and put your trust in their opinion. Third, in the world of investing, what goes up eventually comes down, and even more important, what goes down does not necessarily have to go back up. As Browne pointedly remarks over and over again, in the world of investing, nothing is supposed to happen, and anything can happen. As such, the last five of his seventeen rules can be summarized as: Sophisticated = Stupid and Simple = Smart.

Finally, for those of us, including myself, who feel as if they have missed out on the Greatest Bull Market of All Time, fear not, for there will be other opportunities. After all, the last Greatest Bull Market of All Time occurred just before the Great Crash of 1929. As Browne tells the reader at the end of the book, you are not a failure if you missed the boat. To this I must add: You are not a failure if you missed the boat- especially if the boat was the Titanic! I think there are a lot of bruised and broken investors from the New Era Internet Boom (and subsequent Bust) that will wholeheartedly agree with me, as the last six years have been their figurative Titanic. These individuals especially need to read, and re-read this book as they invest going forward.

Bringing Las Vegas to a living room near you!

I rate this book five stars, less for the contents of this book on its own, but rather for the series of books that Mr. Brown put out in the '80's, _Why the best laid investment plans go wrong_ in particular. This book contains the heart of those earlier books without all of the explanation, which may be why the point of it missed the earlier reviewer. Browne suggests dividing ones portfolio into two sections -- a "variable portfolio" that you can speculate with and a "permanent portfolio" which should be set up to survive *any* possible financial disaster, war, revolution, natural disaster, or whatever. He achieves this by diversifying in several different classes of investment, at least one of which should be helped by whatever happens. So if it's hyperinflation that arrives, and stocks and bonds are tanking, the gold part of your portfolio will go through the roof -- if the great depression comes back, the bond part of your portfolio will skyrocket. Whatever happens, the overall value of your portfolio should move gradually upward. I know now that some people are laughing, what gold? Nobody invests in gold any more. You need to understand that Browne is advacating an investment strategy for the ages. So what if gold is in the dumps for a decade or two? When that disaster we can't even conceive of wrecks the world economy in 2020, won't you be glad you've got that gold bullion in an offshore account to help you rebuild your life. The "permanent portfolio" is not about getting rich quick, it's about avoiding becoming poor quick. The "variable portfolio" is about getting rich quick, if you can. I first read Browne's advice a couple of decades ago when I was living overseas and had just had the fun of going through a coup against the government that involved three days of firefights between govt troops and rebels *inside* the bank where every dime I owned was kept. Mr. Browne is right. Nobody knows what will happen next. If you have money you can't afford to lose, you have to be ready for anything, and Harry Browne gives you the tools to do so.

This book is almost impossible for me to rate.

If the book had stopped with raising the question about how to invest so that you had financial security, and exposed all the risks as it does, it would have been a five-star book.

If the book had only looked at the importance of assuming that the future is unpredictable, and discussed alternatives about how to reduce the risk of that unpredictability, it would have been a five-star book.

Where the book gets into trouble, is that it offers unqualified recommendations that will get you into financial trouble. I graded the book down two stars for this problem.

The book argues that you focus on your day job (your career) as task one. Very few people will ever get to the point where investments replace earned or operating business income. Most financial books skip over this very important point.

Further, the book makes the important distinction between money that you should not take risks with and money that you can afford to lose. And it reiterates that distinction often and effectively. The money you plan to retire on is money with which you should not take much risk, and the money you have saved above that you can try other things with.

I particularly admired the many ways Mr. Browne documents the likelihood that any way you learn about to "beat the market" will soon do very poorly. Although this will not be enough to discourage the inexperienced from avoiding "taking a flyer," certain lessons can only be learned the hard way by most people.

So what's the real problem with investing? Prices fluctuate . . . a lot. These fluctuations cause investors to do the wrong things. They buy high and sell low. Ouch!

Mr. Browne's solution is to put together a portfolio that will protect you against the downside circumstances of high inflation, deflation, prosperity, and deflation. Although he doesn't say it, he wants your investments to be steadier in value so you won't be tempted to buy high and sell low.

Here is where the thinking gets a little dicey. How much downside risk you need to protect against depends solely on two things: the likelihood that you will sell at the wrong time and how long you will hold the asset. So the solution will tend to differ for each person. And I'm not quite sure how anyone assesses anyone's emotional tendency to buy and sell at the wrong time.

So let's shift focus. How can you avoid taking a ride downward? In nominal terms, that's not too hard. Stay in cash. You will always get some return, and if you are holding government short-term securities (like Treasury bills) or are in a government-insured savings account, there is little risk of losing your principal. For example, in tax deferred accounts, the returns on cash now are well above inflation. So in some environments, you won't even lose buying power.

So if you are close to retirement (or needing the money), it makes sense to be almost totally or totally in cash.

If you are 20 years old, the question turns around. Over a period of 40-50 years, cash will probably earn you a lower return than any other investment you can make. But can you handle the volatility? You should probably assume that you cannot handle the volatility. So you should have a fair amount of cash too in your "investment" rather than your "speculative" funds.

But you can handle that risk, too, in another way. You can save more money than you need to retire on (or for your children's education or whatever). Then the volatility will only take you down towards the minimum sums you need to have, not take you below your targets. If this approach feels comfortable to you, it is a better solution. You will earn more money and have less lifetime risk.

There are quite a few areas where I have problems with his advice. They are too numerous to outline here, but I will mention a few:

He ideally wants you to own 25 percent of your portfolio in gold in Austria or Switzerland. First, if you are over 60, I think that's very risky. If the value of that gold goes down, you've just lost. You won't probably hold it long enough to make the loss back. Second, you will increase the chances of being audited by the IRS if you honestly declare that you have a foreign bank account. Third, you will have violated the law if you do not. Fourth, what if you and your spouse die in a car accident? Are your heirs going to find that gold? Do you really need these problems?

He also encourages you to have your money in stock mutual funds and to select three for diversification. But he doesn't give you the information you need to do that well. See John Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds for help with that issue.

Finally, he recommends people you can implement that strategy with. Be skeptical of any author who presents "trustworthy" people for you to work with. There are many, many ways this advice can represent conflicts of interest, overt or sub rosa.

If a salesman told you you could have "fail-safe" results and only need to spend 30 minutes a year to do so, would you believe her or him? Where else should you be skeptical about the specifics of advice you receive.

Think through how to "emotion-reduce" and "risk-reduce" your investing!

...according to Harry Browne, is the fact that "almost nothing turns out as expected." And yet, unlike in most other areas of their lives, in which they rightly view soothsayers as entertainers devoid of an inside track to the future justifying any go-for-broke departure from the straight and narrow of prudential common sense, somehow in the sphere of investing, perhaps driven by the fear of being "left behind" by the latest opportunities for speculative windfalls (and, need we add, spectacular losses?), millions of otherwise practical people are enchanted by one siren song or another: the claims of self-anointed "insiders" with "perfect" track records (i.e., a few lucky haphazard predictions from yesteryear masking the several dozen by the same advisor which turned sour), or the "scientific" systems of various gurus which start to fail the minute your money is on the line. By contrast, the desires of the great majority of us for the protection and enhancement of that part of our savings we cannot afford to lose as we prepare for retirement and beyond, can be best served by an investment strategy which emphasizes safety and simplicity - and which is diversified across four major investment media - stocks, bonds, gold and cash - so that, no matter what the uncertain future brings to the economy, our portfolios contain investments geared to respond well to each major trend - prosperity, inflation, tight money, or deflation. And with this strategy in place for those assets readers are counting on for their long-term survival, they still may, if they wish, speculate with that portion of their fortunes they know they can afford to lose. Ultimately, Browne's investment advice is a sound application of what, in that intoxicating book of personal philosophy which has helped so many in their quest for freedom and self-understanding, HOW I FOUND FREEDOM IN AN UNFREE WORLD (1973), he calls "The Uncertainty Trap: the urge to act as if your information were totally certain." And in their herd-based quest to sound "professional" and ahead of the competition, too many investment pundits and "experts" present themselves as "in the know" about not just why the market rose or fell today (I'm sure I'm not the only one who enjoys a great horselaugh whenever he hears broadcast reports to the effect that "the market rose today on rumors [or fears, or puffs of smoke] that..."), but what it will do tomorrow - and next year (as the always good-humored Browne points out, anyone with an authentic gift for financial prophecy wouldn't be wasting his time hawking newsletters and trading systems, or playing the talking-heads game on cable - he'd be helping the likes of George Soros and Rupert Murdoch invest a few spare billion, en route to owning his own country). Everything Browne writes merits the closest attention, and in this, his self-proclaimed last book on investing, he here presents a sort of summa of the common-sense wisdom he has garnered from thirty years of watching the rise and fall of markets - and he does so with his customary directness, clarity, and humility. He remains in a class by himself, and many of us will always be in his debt for the uncommon ideas he has expressed so ably. And above all for his own example - for the standard he has set.

I have read a couple of Mr Browne's books and come to the conclusion that he is very pessimist. Read this book only if you are want to be a short sellist specialist.