In 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
This week’s podcast round up includes great shows from Yaron Brook, Steve Simpson and Amy Peikoff covering a host of topics including Trump and the DIM Hypothesis, Ayn Rand, the climate change inquisition, hope and more.
It was Yaron’s turn on Leonard Peikoff’s podcast this week and he answered the following great questions:
Each week Yaron does a one hour radio program on AM560 in Chicago, also now broadcast in Miami. This week’s show took a look at someone he
In this talk from the Pan American School in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Yaron Brook discusses what it takes to be an entrepreneur and how that fits in to living a flourishing, successful life. A central idea is the role of the mind, not only in discovering the facts of reality necessary to such a life, but also to our emotions.
Reason is how we learn about the world. Emotions are how we experience the world.
Another idea that I found interesting was Yaron’s emphasis on the fact that trade applies
I recently finished reading Equal is Unfair: America’s Misguided War Against Income Inequality by Don Watkins and Yaron Brook and a quote from chapter 5, The War on Opportunity, stood out to me and yesterday, while listening to the book on Audible, that same quote jumped out at me again. The quote is from remarks made by President Obama about economic mobility. As quoted in the book:
[W]e were convinced that America is a place where even if you’re born with nothing, with a little
Up in my part of the country, northern Vermont, drug addiction has been getting a lot of attention of late. In 2014 Governor Shumlin dedicated his state-of-the-state address largely to heroin addition. More recently, Governor Hassan of New Hampshire testified before the legislature in support of a bill to provide more resources to fight the “heroin and opioid crisis.”
By and large the measures advocated for do not address the fundamental issue: why do people begin taking
I was very pleased yesterday when I saw a link for a new talk from one of my favorite speakers, Eric Daniels. In this video of a talk from OCON 2015, he discusses the problems he sees in science education today, the historical roots of those problems, and potential solutions to them.
He gives a quote from an historian that summarizes one way in which science education has gone wrong.
In the relatively short time between 1893 and 1920, the justification for science in the curriculum had shifted
Congratulations to everyone involved in the success of today’s landing of SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 first stage rocket! Amazing, amazing achievement to send a full laden rocket, payload headed to the International Space Station, into space and bring its first stage back down to a perfect landing a small barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean. This is a fantastic tribute to the potential of what man’s mind can achieve when he is left
Ayn Rand often referred to antitrust as among the most immoral of laws and in this video from OCON 2015, Associate Professor of Strategy Ryan Krause discusses how antitrust laws destroy a businessman’s ability to plan for the long range success of his company by their effect on business strategy. He defines business strategy and summarizes the impact of antitrust laws in this quote:
Business strategy is the crux of high-level business decision making. Its what business should we be in, what
On his April 2nd podcast Yaron Brook answered a question about what the Objectivist Movement 2.0 is about. Check out his complete answer starting at about the 68 minute mark, but in essence it is about creating a community where we “highlight success, highlight successful people, highlight successful values, highlight the positive.”
“A spirit, too, needs fuel. It can run dry.” – Ayn Rand, Ideal
This struck a chord for me as I have been thinking a lot lately about
A round up of the podcasts I listen to is something that used to be a feature of the this blog but had fallen by the wayside, along with pretty much everything, over the last year or so. I am resuming this regular post for a couple of reasons. First, I think it is worthwhile to promote these podcasts and the ideas they feature to people who have not heard of them or do not follow them regularly. Second, and more personally, this type of post provides a relatively easy way for me to get writing