Thoughts on Robert Kiyosaki and "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"?

On the surface it sells a false promise

Below the surface it's telling you "just be a rentseeker. Look down upon those who work for a living."

Like literally one of the grossest themes is the condescending tone of the rich dad towards workers like the poor dad. He literally considers being a teacher a wasted life because he's so blinded by greed and pursuit of money (which is freedom and power).

It's a gross hyper capitalist outlook on the world.

The only things of "educational value" in it are his discussion on assets vs liabilities which, considering likely everyone here lives under capitalism, is worth knowing and understanding, although you absolutely don't need this book to learn that stuff.

The rest is a mixture of hopium, lies, disgusting myths about capitalism and other shit.

What is there to say? There’s no evidence Yiyosaki was wealthy until he started making money from his books, courses and MLM. And his “poor dad” was actually pretty wealthy.

Oh geez, where do I begin. I've actually read the bloody thing, about a decade ago, during my cringe youth. And it's horrid. It's just okay enough written to hook in impressionate minds - you know, the kind that would think libertarians have some good ideas.

As for contents... Reading it as a Marxist might be actually good for a peek into the mind of an ancap. The author is quite blatant in a few moments, if you're paying attention.

For example there's a bit in the foreword (I think), where Robert boasts about meeting some unnamed journalist (likely a collective image to make a strawman). The journalist criticised Robert for writing drivel, to which he pointed out that the cover said "Author of bestseller". It was, of course, an "and then the bus clapped" tale, but it is very telling where the author's priorities lie - and where he posits the reader's priorities should be.

It goes on like that. At one point the author regales a story of himself as a child. Together with a friend they've been trying to make some pocket money by selling stuff door to door (IIRC), and then had a "brilliant idea" of just making money, by carving coins out of toothpaste tubes. Despite it being inane, both got chewed by their respective dads, who wrung their hands about how that would be "counterfeit". As Marxists, we have an inkling of how money printers work, but here it is treated as the most heinous crime. Pretty sure Marx had something to say about capitalism ascribing "magical properties" to money.

So to summarise: shit book, horrid advices, but could be a peculiar study of the liberal mind. It is also pretty short and blatant, which makes it an easier case study than shit like Atlas Shrugged.

He is a fiction writer who managed to sell a lot of books to disillusioned working class people hoping to escape the grind.

Advice on how to handle money and finances is okay but even that is incredibly shady in his book. And, as always, if getting rich was as easy as reading a book then everyone could be rich. But not everyone can, it's impossible.

Capitalist dad

JUCHE DAD

There's lots of debunking material on this trash. If Books Could Kill podcast did a episode on it, kind of an infotainment takedown.

I only know something about it from my mother's regurgitation of her interpretation of it, so as far as I understand it's your usual "being poor is a case of bad mindset".

Aside from what everyone else has said, the book advice itself is really bad also.

An evangelical I know loves this book.