Buddha Bucks Books for the Hippie Mom or Dad

We don't care if all of the hippies may have cut their hair but that doesn't mean these people from the psychedelic generation don't know how to read. Most of the flower children have grown up into outstanding citizens who function quite nicely, thank you, and actually help make the world go round. Despite the ones who have become super-famous (infamous?) for operating mostly on negative energy, the majority of the flower-children-turned-businessmen know that deriving success from running a business comes from the utilization of positive energy and good money based on good karma.

For anyone looking for gift ideas to give to the cool, hippie mom or dad on Mother's Day or Father's Day, here are a few suggestions for books that may help expand both the bank account and the consciousness of the mind.

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
Barbara Ehrenreich
This is the story of my own life - or anyone else's who has done all that they are "supposed" to do to achieve the American Dream, such as spend years in school and work our way up that all-important corporate ladder. Barbara Ehrenreich's documented adventure of being a laid-off, middle-aged executive trying to find work in today's lackluster job market is a page after page circus tale that most any reader will find hard to put down.

Business and the Buddha
Lloyd Field, Ph.D.
The author worked several decades in the corporate world prior to being enlightened to the fact that organizations are able to run ethically without sacrificing the bottom line. His ideas about individual social responsibility and running a business based on humanitarian values is suitable for anyone looking to expand their enterprise ethically or seeking to break into the global market while putting forth a more appropriate business philosophy for that market. This book also has an interesting foreword from the Dalai Lama.

Kabbalah of Money
Rabbi Nilton Bonder
Rabbi Bonder is from Brazil where he is known as the Green Rabbi for his activism in environmental causes. The innovative teachings in this book break through the stereotypes that our culture has taught us about money and it also offers some memorable insights into the metaphysical dynamics of money for anyone interested in any religious or spiritual matter.

Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit, And The Era of Predatory Lenders
James D. Scurlock
The movie is out on DVD but the book was fun to read. The author gives an outlook on the ins and outs of credit cards and the abuse by millions of Americans from both sides of the equation. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to cut the umbilical cord of credit cards.

Mindfulness and Money: The Buddhist Path to Abundance
Dominic J. Houlder and Kulananda Houlder
This is a lighthearted, fun, and easy-to-read book about the positive energy of money. Our culture teaches that money is bad, dirty, or that the only people who have it are greed. These two British authors give us a fair dose of enlightenment as well as some good reasons to love both our work and the money that it earns for us. A definite must for anyone who might have been harboring conflicting thoughts about money.

Nickel and Dimed
Barbara Ehrenreich
This is another best-selling book by the author of "Bait and Switch" in which the author actually poses as an unemployed person trying to find a job and live indoors while earning a minimum wage. She documents her experiences and its associated perils all derived from actually working at a Wal Mart store. With an additional second job as a waitress and befriending a coworker who lives out of a van, she demonstrated how it is virtually impossible for anyone to survive on their own by working at jobs such as these.

Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline
Lisa Margonelli
With outrageous gasoline prices that have skyrocketed over $4 a gallon, this is the book that should be on everyone's mind. The author takes us on a sometimes hilarious and always highly informative journey, which informs us about where and how oil is made, refined, distributed and sold at the gas pump. From the oilrigs in Texas to the fields in Iran, Chad, Nigeria, China and Venezuela, the author's voyage of discovery unveils a highly intricate and sometimes over-the-edge political and cultural big picture of the oil industry.

Think and Grow Rich
Napoleon Hill
This book was first published in 1937 after the Great Depression but the ideas that Napoleon Hill had about thought-construction are similar to those concepts concerning our reality that the Buddha taught over 2500 years ago. This is a book that I highly recommend for any business library because the logic of the principles presented within it are aligned with the concept of positive energy, while at the same time they are also extremely practical. Napoleon Hill also happens to be one of my favorite motivation authors, as he firmly believed in the proposition that a business is only successful when it is created and run according to The Golden Rule.

Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, Why the Poor Are Poor - And Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car!
Tim Harford
This book lays out the bare bones of how an economy such as ours operates and as it is seen through the author's own enthusiastic attitude and sometimes hip demeanor. Ranging from the Law of Supply and Demand to the subject of the Cost of Manufacturing Goods, this book is ideal for anyone who might wish to "tighten up the belt" or who is becoming more aware and conscious about the purchases they make.