In reading Andrew Mellon’s 1924 book, Taxation: The People’s Business, I am pretty impressed with his general trend of thought. There are some areas where I don’t agree with him, such as on whether taxes are actually the proper way to fund government, but on the whole I like what
Podcast Roundup – October 14
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.
- Free Market Revolution: The Immoral Entitlement State
Philosophy in Action with Dr. Diana Hsieh – A Rapid Fire Q&A Extravaganza
- Psychological egoism and determinism
- Current situation in Washington, D.C.
- Having online-only friends
- Favorite character from an Ayn Rand novel
- Standing up to a snide remark from your boss
- Preppers
- When would you (Diana) immigrate to another country?
- Are parents overprotective today?
- Should children be forced to socialize with others if they don’t want to?
- Reality TV show between libertarians and socialists
- Is the force in fraud the withholding another’s property?
- and more!
Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s Podcast – Episode 291
- Part 2 of a debate between Dr. Peikoff and Yaron Brook on immigration. You can find the first episode here.
I have also been listening to recorded lectures available from the Ayn Rand estore. This week I have been listening to:
Spiraling Out of Control – Quote of the Day
I find it very interesting to read the views of people from many years ago about the dangers of certain types of government action and seeing how those dangers are coming to pass now, or have already come to pass.
Ayn Rand is a great source of this type of thing and I am finding Andrew Mellon is as well. In his Taxation: The People’s Business, written in 1924, he pointed out the dangers of the government subsidizing business or giving bonuses to certain classes of consumers.
A bonus or subsidy
Money and Power: A Debate
Video is at the bottom of the post.
Last night my brother and I had the good fortune to attend the debate on money and power between Yaron Brook and Hederick Smith at the Modern Theater of Suffolk University in Boston, MA.
When we first arrived, over an hour before the event was scheduled to start, the line was already forming. Judging from the literature being handed out to those in line opposing the Citizens United decision, I felt we were going to be somewhat outnumbered and, as my brother
Doomed to Repeat It – Quote of the Day
I am still mixing things up between Objective Communication and, among other things, Taxation: The People’s Business. Today’s quote from the latter is one that could just as easily have been written today rather than in a book written nearly 90 years ago.
Subsidies have been granted to some industries to encourage production until demand should become normal and bonuses have been granted to relieve certain classes of consumers burdened by the high prices of necessaries. Such efforts
Alienation – Quote of the Day
One of the last essays in Ayn Rand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal is one titled “Alienation” by Nathaniel Branden. In this essay he talks about the view some authors have about modern society, and how it is because we are “too rational” that we feel separated, alienated, from the world around us and other people.
Branden argues that this feeling of alienation that some (many?) people experience is because they hold a view of the world that is contradictory to reality
Podcast Roundup – October 7
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.
- Free Market Revolution: The Regulatory State and Its Victims (Part 2)
Philosophy in Action Radio with Dr. Diana Hsieh
- Timothy Sandefur on Occupational Licensing Versus the Right to Earn a Living
Philosophy in Action with Dr. Diana Hsieh
- Do corporations have rights?
- Psychological egoism vs Ethical egoism
- Dealing with a professor’s objectionable views
- Deduction from Axioms
Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s Podcast – Episode 290
- Part 1 of a debate between Dr. Peikoff and Yaron Brook on immigration. Can hardly wait for part 2 next week.
I have also been listening to a variety of lectures available from the Ayn Rand estore.
The Real Intent – Quote of the Day
While reading the last essay, “Requiem for Man,” in Ayn Rand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal I came across the following quote that I thought was particularly apt given that Obamacare has “gone live,” more or less, across the country.
This particular essay was Ayn Rand’s response to an encyclical from Pope Paul VI in 1967, which she summarizes as being “the manifesto of an impassioned hatred for capitalism.”
But, you say, the encyclical’s ideal
Moo Cluck Moo and the $15 Wage, or the Exception That Proves the Rule
Today I came across a story that apparently has been around for a few months about a fast food restaurant in Dearborn Heights, MI called Moo Cluck Moo where they pay their starting employees an astounding $12.00, soon to be $15, per hour. Needless to say this has brought cries from many that are variations on “See, you greedy corporate fat cats, you can pay a living wage and make money!” (Of course none of these people state clearly how much a “living wage” is or who
President Obama, I Think This is Addressed to You – Quote of the Day
I am currently reading Objective Communication, which is based on a lecture series by Dr. Leonard Peikoff about learning to think and communicate clearly. It is quite dense in many ways so I am breaking it up with other books. Among those other books, I just started in on