Customer Reviews
Excellent insight into a possible future few have considered - By: vikingraider, 18 Apr 2008 
This is an excellent, well-researched book into the subject of the future. It predicts a declinein the power of indebted governments to tax & control our lives, mainly due to globalisation & the internet. They may well be right longer-term, but for now, their shorter-term prediction of governmental attempts to maintain & strengthen their control, swimming against the tide, have proved highly accurate, as has their predictions on the decline of national currencies & the strength of gold & 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 & conciselyin a book half the size. Well worth the read though, & maybe one to prepare ourselves forin future.
Very focused and clear argument - By: , 18 Mar 2003 A very focused & clear argument for what is happening with the world, based on a historical walk-through from hunter-gatherers to internet times. You cannot fault the analysis, nor the conclusions.
The presentation style is mightily irritating -- several ill-disguised rants on every page along the lines of "we told you so", "when the rest of the world ridiculed us, who were the ones that were right after all...?", "we pointed this out as early asin 1994, but did people listen to us? Oh no.". If you can tolerate the rant & self-righteousness, you have a first-rate book with a frightening view of where we are heading, & no reason not to believe the conclusions.
Highly recommended, mightily irritating.
Fascinating perspectives - By: , 13 Apr 2000 The authors present a fascinating argument on where they feel society is heading, based on how they see current technology affecting the way we live our lives.
This book takes *big history*, combines it with analysis of contemporary technological advances (esp the internet) & argues that the future will see far more individual liberty than ever before.
The passage of two years since its publication has not undermined their theses at all.
The best cut at future history that I have seen! - By: , 10 Mar 1999 
"The Sovereign Individual" is the most insightful book on "Future History", i.e. attempted prediction of the near future, that I have seen. It describes how the advent of cyberspace will undermine the power of our current nation-states, & how wealthy people, possibly including large parts of the upper-middle class, will shun the tax-happy nation-states & live "off-shore", i.e.in any jurisdiction that suits them, typically small countries such as can be foundin the Caribbean. By the same token, a lot of businesses will move their head offices & many of of its other funcions based on cost/benefit, where cost of labour & taxation will be major factors, alhough not the only ones. An increasing number of activities can truly be performed without physical presence, as the world's work becomes increasingly intellectual. My own example of an early adaptor of this method would be Science Fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who lives & writes tax-freein Sri Lanka.
Fundamentally, this trend to the "off-shore" will capitalise on an emerging free marketin sovereignty, i.e. the provision of government services such as defence, police & court system. The likely result of this market will be that large scale support of unprofitable activities, such as massive transfer payments to nominally or factually poor people, will become increasingly rare, as those govenments that focus on protection will be able to offer a lower price. Thus, businesses & wealthy individuals will simply settlein jurisdictions that have minimal or nonexistent welfare systems.
Another of the major predictions is that as business becomes globalised, wages will tend to equalise between countries, but become less equal between individuals & between types of work. A computer programmerin Estonia will earn wages not very different from one in the City of London (if not, any new hiring will bein Estonia, & they will send their product instantly to London), whereas both may well earn vastly more than any assemply-line workerin Luton or Narva.
The authors predict that the nation-states,in particular thosein the industrialized West, i.e. the USA & Western Europe, will undergo severe disruptions, probably including civil unrest, panicked attempts at taxation of anything that moves (andin particular of anything that does not), governments holding as hostages wealthy individuals, & so on (cf. "The Economist", 1997-May-30, cover story "The Vanishing Taxpayer", published AFTER "The Sovereign Individual").
The thing most worth noting is that while the authors show only thinly concealed glee at the non-producers getting cut off from transfer payments & government salaries, several authors with different world views make very similar predictions, although with jeers rather than cheers. Examples are Eugene Luttwak ("Turbo-Capitalism", critical but admitting that the alternatives are often worse); Lester Thurow ("The Future of Capitalism", mostly critical); & William Greider ("One World, Ready or Not", mainly critical). With such a consensus on substance, i.e. actual predictions, I would have to conclude that they are probably right, & I observe that "The Sovereign Individual" makes the strongest & most clear-cut case. Anybody who values their wealth or earning power or even their life should read it!
