In her essay “Government Financing in a Free Society”, which can be found in The Virtue of Selfishness, Ayn Rand says:
In a fully free society, taxation—or, to be exact, payment for governmental services—would be voluntary. Since the proper services of a government—the police, the armed forces, the law courts—are demonstrably needed by individual citizens and affect their interests directly, the citizens would (and should) be willing to pay for such services, as they pay for
I don’t agree with everything this boy says, there is a fair dose of egalitarianism, but his thinking is remarkable clear.
Assuming the translation is accurate, and the boy is being truthful, he came to his ideas by listening, reading and using his own mind to think about the issues facing his country. I would wager there are many adults who might not see the contradiction in the Egyptian constitution saying “women are equal to men in all matters, except matters that contradict Islamic
Just over a year ago my brother started his blog with a post largely about the coming “smart grid” and “smart meters” that were starting to be pushed here in Vermont. He summed up the potential issues with:
“Here’s the part that has worms crawling out of it. This same technology will also allow utilities and
Today’s quote comes from a talk by Ayn Rand, I believe from the 1960’s, about the so-called Robber Barons of the 19th century, and how they were actually the greatest benefactors of the United States, contrary to what popular history tells us. About 5 minutes into the recording, which you can find here, she made a statement that jumped out at me enough to go over it repeatedly to write it down. The groups she is referring to are the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads.
In
“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
Came across this quote today in Ayn Rand’s essay titled “The Nature of Government”, found in the book “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.” It seems appropriate given all that is coming out of Washington these days:
“…instead of serving as the instrument of objectivity in human relationships, the government is creating a deadly, subterranean reign of uncertainty and fear, by means of non-objective laws whose interpretation is left to the arbitrary
Sometimes it can be disheartening looking at the direction the country appears to be going. Hardly a day goes by when we do not hear news of some new program or regulation or law that is supposed to make us “safer” or “healthier” or to promote the “common good.” When we note that these laws and programs and regulations restrict our individual liberty and limit our rights (or take them away altogether), we are told that we all have to make sacrifices to
This morning while browsing through the channels when I came across Carol Roth, speaking on Fox Business News where she was talking about the reasons why the economic recovery is still tepid. I am paraphrasing a bit as I did not rewind the clip to make note of the exact wording but I believe it is fairly close.
“Amercian consumers have a lot of credit available. They have been deleveraging and their home values have been increasing. It is the uncertainty about the future that is keeping them