Tag Archives: freedom

Yaron Brook in Texas on inequality

Equal Is Unfair: America’s Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality

Yaron Brook on inequality at the Texas Public Policy FoundationIn this talk hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Yaron Brook discusses the left’s focus on the issue of income inequality, the issue covered by his new book, Equal is Unfair: American’s Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality.

While the left uses the idea of inequality as a rhetorical device to claim the moral high ground and thereby justify more government intervention, Brook points out that inequality is a metaphysical fact of human nature. We are all different. We read more

Self-Interest versus Public Interest – Quote of the Day

Peter SchwartzOne of the ideas that struck me early on when I started studying Objectivism was the position Ayn Rand took in regards to the “public interest,” a concept she found to be invalid. She saw that there is no such entity as “the public,” there are only individuals. To claim that there is some public interest which we must consider ahead of an individual’s interest is to say that some individuals have a right to sacrifice the interests of others to their own. I find read more

Quote of the Day: On Insurance

In the book Auberon Herbert: Writings of a Reluctant Anarchist Herbert discusses a wide range of topics. At one point he discusses the rise of insurance which, while existing in one for or another for quite some time for business, was becoming available to individuals as well.

But the matter goes far beyond the range of what exists at present. No man can foresee today the full development in the future of the system of insurance. If it is allowed to grow naturally, without disturbance from the read more

Quote of the Day – Ayn Rand on Fighting for Freedom

Another quote from Ayn Rand’s speech “Apollo and Dionysus” that I linked to on Monday.  This one deals with, in short, Ayn Rand’s view on America’s role in fighting for freedom around the world.   This seemed a particularly relevant given the current concern over intervening in various areas around the world.

One thing that was not covered in this brief answer that would be extremely important, is what exactly is “freedom.”  As I pointed out in an earlier read more

Another Quote of the Day – Freedom is Fundamental

For those that may be curious, the quotes I have started posting are from my current reading, pretty much posted as I come to them.  They are passages that jump out at me as I go along. This particular quote is from Ayn Rand’s book “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal” and is in the section discussing reason as man’s means of survivial.  As she says a bit earlier: “The action required to sustain human life is primarily intellectual: everything man needs has to be discovered by his mind and produced by his effort.”  You have only to look around and see all things that are needed to allow man to survive in the world (food, shelter, clothing, defense, and etc) and enjoy life (books, movies, music, travel, and etc) to see that this is true.

“Since knowledge, thinking, and rational action are properties of the individual, since the choice to exercise his rational faculty or not depends on the individual, man’s survival requires that those who think be free of the interference of those who don’t.  Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgement.  Freedom is the fundamental read more