Free Will and Self-Ownership
The Men and Women of the Mind
On July 26, 2025, Forbes published a review written by John Tamny of my book, The Moneyball Method. It was also published on July 18, 2025, at RealClearMarkets.com. And for the last brief essay about the review, it is altogether fitting and proper to focus on the last paragraph:
“Mark Shupe has written a very interesting and enlightening book about investing. Of great importance to readers, he doesn’t just provide them with a roadmap for putting wealth to work, he also provides them with a rare understanding of the money that represents the wealth, and that clarifies money as the brilliant effect of the productive minds who relentlessly improve the world through tireless efforts to improve themselves.
That summary, that conclusion, that clarity, and that understanding are the greatest affirmation and compliment for my work with this book. It is no secret that there are a bazillion books out there on the subject of personal investing – and it will take years to differentiate this one. I knew that going in.
Naturally, The Moneyball Method is about putting wealth to work, but convincing a critical mass of readers of the brilliant effects of productive minds will also take years. And I was aware of that going in. But what Tamny has identified is the reason why this challenge is both difficult and worthwhile.
Western culture today is being led back to primitive tribalism. Causality has been dismissed. Emotion has replaced reason. Conformity has replaced independence. And social justice and saving the planet have replaced character.
But the essence of both Tamny’s review and my book can be found in the last five words of each, respectively: “tireless efforts to improve themselves” and “newly perfected declaration of independence.” They are last because self-ownership must come first in your mind – and in the minds of anyone who thinks they would like to “improve the world.” Perhaps Neil Peart said it best in the 1980 hit song by Rush,
You can choose a ready guide / In some celestial voice / If you choose not to decide / You still have made a choice / You can choose from phantom fears/ And kindness that can kill / I will choose a path that’s clear / I will choose free will.
A good place start is to ditch the celestial voices of social justice that kill, replace them with the poetic justice of markets, measure your investment performance with a path that’s clear, use the best historical data to chart your course, and live the one life you have with confidence. To learn more, please click the link below:
https://www.amazon.com/Moneyball-Method-Middle-Class-Manifesto-Objective/dp/1696009111/
Social justice and saving the planet are *part of* character. Bad decisions that damage the planet or a tiny little corner of it are just as bad as any other decision that destroys value and keeps you from getting what you want.