Good Morning,
I'm looking for some concise content to put into a leaflet (1 A4, colour, double-sided, folded in 2?) for distributing from my libertarian student-group stall in a couple of days.
What would you recommend in terms of content, and could you give me some example paragraphs/images?
I was thinking maybe something about the Minimum Wage and something about Freedom of Association. On my last flyer (from 6 months ago) I had things about Gay Marriage, Monopolies &etc, but it didn't really grab anyone (no-one took a flyer then came back to the stall later to sign-up, we got many sign-ups though from our posters + chats).
Could you help us collate a concise collection of information to put into a pamphlet for distribution?
Thank you,
Samuel Marks
Random thoughts:
0. How many people care about gay marriage [besides gays], or worry much about monopolies? They have their own problems. And you have to discuss them, the things people care about in their personal lives right now.
1. Suggestions for topics:
Why are there no jobs?
Who is correct, the Republicans, or the Democrats, or neither?
Is the Recession really over? Why do they say it is?
Why hasn't the economy been stimulated?
How can I stop the TSA groping me and my family? How did we ever get into such a fix?
How can I get out of debt? Should I bother?
Has the free market failed us once again? How can we fix it?
What's happening with the Euro? Will their troubles affect us?
What is quantitative easing? Do we need more or less of it?
Will I get a job after I graduate? Why does college cost so much?
2. About Images. There is a wealth of stuff on this thread:
http://mises.org/Community/forums/t/8551.aspx?PageIndex=1
Maybe some of it will be of use.
3. Links to the standard websites won't hurt. Mises.org, FEE, lewrockwell.com[?], etc.
My humble blog
It's easy to refute an argument if you first misrepresent it. William Keizer
The first thing that comes to my mind is a sort of "did you know?" theme. Instead of just talking at people, you might engage them with a factoid that they understand and can related to but that is counterintuitive. I'm thinking of something like Tom Wood's 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask, and John Stossel's Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity. And it doesn't have to all be that way, you might choose a central theme and then have "did you know"s throughout it that help support your central thesis.
And your thesis might be something as simple as the correlation between Economic Freedom & Quality of Life. I think if you check through those and view something like Stossel's "Is America Number One?" report, and Woods' "Applying Economics to American History" lecture, you'll get plenty of ideas.
:EDIT:
Totally agree with Dave. Those questions should be the main thrust of the pamphlet. That was kind of what I had in mind. Take concepts and questions like that, but in aside boxes and other sidebar type areas of the pamplet introduce a quick "Did You Know?" box that introduces a historical situation or a commonly-believed myth that is related to the subject, and provide the fact or two that demolishes it.
Along the lines of Dave's excellent questions, I'm reminded of the ad for Peter Schiff's How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes...
That's how you grab people.
http://vforvoluntary.com/files/war.pdf
http://vforvoluntary.com/files/minimum-wage.pdf
http://vforvoluntary.com/files/trade.pdf
http://vforvoluntary.com/files/money.pdf
Thanks everyone for your replies.
Nielsio: I've printed various copies of those, and will have them at the stall.
Everyone else, thanks for your input, all was taken into consideration and the pamphlet has now been printed ready for tomorrow's stall for handout.
To view our final iteration, please see: http://LibertarianSociety.info/flyer.pdf
Best regards,
Good luck. Let us know how it comes out.
Info-day on Friday went great. Got one of the most-signups of any groups there! :]
Unfortunately, some of the passersbys thought us to be Socialist, due to this poster x2 in A3 on our stall: http://imaksim.com/images/downloads/take_24x34.pdf
Could you recommend a different poster to print-up in A3 to tape next to this poster in our stall during the next week of Orientation for my Libertarian stall?
Thanks,
Holy crap. I don't even know what that's supposed to be. But yes, it certainly looks like a severely statist poster. The best I can figure is that it is trying to tell the truth about statists, but I think any satire is completely lost on that. I wouldn't use that again.
Perhaps something like this, this, this if you really have to have something about statism, but I would go more for the postive side...like this