Rating: 
Summary: A glimpse into the near future
Review: Truth to tell, I was a wee bit disappointed when it became obvious that I will not be eligible to be a Sovereign Individuals. I looked forward as eagerly as anyone to the replacement of the nation state with a new way, a way that will not involve government confiscation or violent coercion, particularly since I have a couple of speeding tickets due. But this! Bill Gates, George Soros, Marc Rich and, yes, Jeff Bezos will negotiate tax treaties with private armies and will be treated like customers instead of subjects, while we little people will be left with an exhausted country that can no longer support itself because the taxes that are its lifeblood are no longer paid because the assets of the cognitive elite are safely ensconced and encrypted in cyberspace! Rising crime, falling services--perhaps anarchy-- is what we'll be left with while the cognitive elite drinks rare vintages and rakes in billions in encrypted cybercash with just a few keystrokes, probably while enjoying the view from the finest islands on the planet. One wonders: Is there some way we can head off this exodus of society's most productive members and their tax dollars? Come back, I say, come back! Don't leave us here at the mercy of the Cosa Nostra and the Tong Triads and the Russian biznizmeni! --But wait, what's this on page 215? "...The effects of freeing resources from systematic compulsion will vary greatly among jurisdictions. This freezing of resources will bankrupt welfare states, and enhance diseconomies to scale that are undermining large governments and all institutions subsidized by large governments." Ah-ha! Apparently it has not been decided yet whether to "free" or "freeze" the resources of the world. If somehow the Information Elite can be persuaded (not coerced!) into taking the latter course, then there just might be a way to keep the resources from being encrypted. You see, with global warming, it's going to be hard to keep a carton of peas frozen for very long, much less all the non-pea assets of the world. We are indebted to the authors for giving us this freeing/freezing hint to preserve our way of life for a few more years.
Rating: 
Summary: An Interesting Read
Review: The book theorizes the driving forces of change using their "megapolitics" approach. It intermingles the industrial revolution--often considered an 18th-20th Century phenomenon as beginning with the printing press and gunpowder--often considered the "Renaissance." You might do better with the hardback version, but I haven't seen it. The Y2K analysis is bunk, but reasonably well hedged. I did think the analyis of Clinton funny (i.e., the clumsy cover-up of the Vincent Foster murder, etc.). We already see some of the things they're talking about. Namely, there is greatly diminished returns from the nation-state, and technology is undermining nation-state policies (e.g., no internet taxation, bypassing state sales tax, telecommunications competition in international calling, etc.). The large scale government operations and attempts to control are wildly unsuccessful these days. What I found most interesting was the approach to explaining the driving forces of history...the "Why?" factor. I don't agree with all of it though, I think that the industrial aspects of the state will diminish in the same manner that we still have agriculture but only 5% of the population in that industry. The same will be true of industry, but we see that transpiring already. What I see happening is an automation of administration such that we wont really need bureucrats or middle management in the future. That will free up substantial human capital to get the genetic revolution off the ground. The book is a bit more radical in its predictions, although I hope that many of its predictions come true (e.g., no more graduated income tax, government services that benefit those who pay for them, etc.).
Rating:
Summary: A profound attempt to anticipate the macro-future of humanit
Review: Those who worship the State as their true God hate this book and its authors, are startled and angered by their own attraction to its core ideas and their lack of ability to refute those ideas. Fewof them are insightful enough to realize that the only serious vulnerability of the Davidson-Rees Mogg thesis is their dogmatic and poorly explained assertion that the State cannot devise means to control and tax the internet and its users. The authors, whose adumbration of the manner in which civilization and mankind was brought to their present conditions and characteristics is superb, original and most convincing, would be well-advised to devote their next book to telling us just why and how the State will be prevented from working its will in cyberspace while individuals will not. There are strong arguments against this notion, and if they cannot be effectively disposed of, all the rest of this book is simply a rambling exposition of ideas about the facts of history and human nature.
Rating:
Summary: Difficult to read, excellent content
Review: One of the most difficult books I have read. I find I have to read most paragraphs twice, to make sure I have grasped it fully. However, I am thoroughly enjoying the job, finding the authors' view of the future both fascinating and totally credible. I read with wry amusement some comments from reviewers getting onto the old bandwagon of the rich getting richer by preying on the poor. I think the truth is that most of the time the rich get rich by educating themselves as to how money works, and the poor remain so by not doing so. This book is an excellent example of a source of such information. I refer to western economies in general, where wealth is generally available to anyone who learns and then does the work. I am not suggesting for one minute that the starving peoples in much of the world have the same opportunities.
Rating:
Summary: Controversial, but a must-read
Review: This is more than simply a reprint of the hardback edition. The authors have added material on the possible effects of y2k, and have rewritten their assessment of Bill Clinton, for example. I think the best part of the book is the historical analysis of how changes in the monopoly on violence impact civilization. This aspect of the book alone makes it a must read in my view.
Rating: 
Summary: Authors ignore research in the area
Review: I must say that the authors of this book cannot meet generally accepted academic standards particularly in the area of a review of the existing theoretical and empirical research. There is an extensive literature in the field that deals with theories of the (national) state, how globalization adversely affects such states and what is happening in terms of an "international" state and "international" institutions, the roles of the IMF and the World Bank, the role of transnational corporations vis-a-vis national states, "international" institutions, international affairs, and current "globalization." What is disturbing about this book is not that it has a view on this debate but rather that it ignores most contributions to the debate itself. This is further reflected in its ignoring of much of the research dealing with the welfare state. One can disagree with the factual findings but to ignore them is, in my mind, very problematical. I'm afraid that this all adds up to what might be termed "propaganda."
Rating: 
Summary: Verbose!
Review: The one problem I had with this book was that at the end of a chapter, I didn't feel I learned much. A lot of reading, not much learning. Hmmm. If you like speculation without alot of hard-core facts, this book is for you. One quality worth mentioning is the text about internet encryption to avoid government monitoring.
Rating:
Summary: ..my new Bible..
Review: I would almost go so far as to say that this book is my new Bible, but my mother may be reading this...
Rating:
Summary: A superb insight into the future, warts and all
Review: The Sovereign Individual is a work of rational prediction. It offers a vision of the forces at work in the world, and in the likely direction of movement, with sufficient caveats about their accuracy and timing. It is clear from their past works that Davidson and Rees-Moog do not have a crystal ball. No one does. But their theory of megapolitical forces that are beyond the control of any individual or group offers a far more cogent understanding of a changing world than the conspiracy theories of either the Left or the Right, both of which are hopelessly entrenched in the current "faith" in the STATE. The response in some of the reviews is so predictable; we don't like the message, so attack the messanger. The strength of this book is in the historical analysis. The description of the Y1K crisis is worth the price of the book by itself. The authors will not be right about everything that they predict. No one is. However, they are looking in the right direction.
Rating: 
Summary: The usual from the Davidson & Mogg act.............
Review: The authors make me laugh. They suffer from the same hypocrisy which infects all pseudo libertarians: they loathe government for taxes and regulation (READ: law enforcement for corporations) while being the first to suckle up to it when their assets are threatened by street criminals or totalitarian regimes. Human nature has not been repealed: the "have-nots" will always covet that which the "haves" acquire through unabashed self-promotion and confidence shemes (READ: endorsing swampland in Belize as a tax haven). Before you buy this book, you should know that the authors (and their readers) lost a bundle predicting a depression and chaos early this decade. They should realize by now, that grandiloquent geopolitical and economic forecasts almost never materialize because exogenous events will occur which are by definition, unpredictable and because other economic agents do not simply sit passively while the super wealthy spin their own visions of utopia. As a great American once said, there are two things in life which are certain: death and taxes. Even nanotechnology will not change that.
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