Not long ago I came across a description of a film that was to be shown at a local movie theater. The film is the first of a six part documentary about the history of Vermont called The Vermont Movie. A part of the description refers to the myriad factors in Vermont history that: give the Green Mountain State its egalitarian ideals.
This raised my philosophical hackles and made me cringe a bit. Some time later, in the October 24th edition of our local paper, the
I have begun reading Burt Folsom’s New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America and it is interesting, as I often find it, how similar earlier times are to today.
One of the first “New Deal” measures pushed through in 1933 was the National Industrial Recovery Act, later shortened to National Recovery Act or NRA. Among the many provisions of this act was the fixing of wages, not just minimums but all wages, for each industry. This was unpopular
Here are this week’s episodes from the Objectivism related podcasts I try to listen to. They are all great sources of information and insight on applying objectivist principles to everyday life.
Philosophy in Action with Dr. Diana Hsieh
Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s Podcast – Episode 293
I have also been listening to recorded lectures available from the Ayn Rand estore. This week I have been listening to:
Great presentation from Yaron Brook at this year’s Objectivist Summer Conference. I hope that at some point I will be able to attend one of these conferences.
http://www.youtube.com/v/nobSkuX72k8?autoplay=0I have just added Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America by Timothy Sandefur to my current reading rotation and even though I am just getting started I can tell this is going to a #facepalm sort of book. The early part of the book takes a quick survey of some of the more outrageous property rights cases, such as the case where a Toyota dealership was condemned so the property could be taken via eminent domain…to give to the BMW dealership next door.
The first case
This video is of a talk Yaron Brook gave just recently in Israel. I get a lot out of all of Yaron’s talks but I especially enjoyed this one as he spends a fair amount of time going over the basics of Ayn Rand’s philosophy in ways I had not heard him use before.
He starts with the fact that reality is what it is and not what we “wish” it would be (metaphysics) then moves on to the fact that reason is our way to understand the world and to survive in it (epistemology) which
Here are this week’s episodes from the Objectivism related podcasts I try to listen to. They are all great sources of information and insight on applying objectivist principles to everyday life.
Philosophy in Action with Dr. Diana Hsieh
Yaron Brook on Leonard Peikoff’s Podcast – Episode 292 – More Foreign Policy Questions
I have also been listening to recorded lectures available from the Ayn Rand estore. This week I have been listening to:
While I do not agree 100% with what Andrew Mellon talks about in his 1924 book, Taxation: The People’s Business, I do wish more of today’s politicians would read it before they advocate for some of the economic measures they champion, such as higher corporate taxes, higher taxes on the “rich”, sales tax on medical devices, and higher minimum wages to name a few.
This quote of just one sentence comes in the context of a discussion on the effect of the high tax rates at the
It is still amazing to me that in reading a book written 90 years ago I find situations that appear essentially the same as those we face today. In Andrew Mellon’s Taxation: The People’s Business he quotes Henry Ford on the effect of high taxes on the rich.
High taxes on the rich do not take burdens off the poor. They put burdens on the poor. As far as our company is concerned, we can go on about as we now are, whether the surtax is 25% or 50%. We can make some improvements,
What would you think if someone told you, “don’t worry if it is right or wrong, just do what you feel like?”
That was, in essence, an idea presented by Hedrick Smith during a debate last week with Yaron Brook as part of the Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University. This is hardly unique to Hedrick Smith, or to the liberals whose positions he represented in the debate, but is becoming common in society today, especially in politics.
In answering questions about government action to produce desired