Conclusion to another great series from Don Watkins at the Ayn Rand Institute. He also has a great 6 part series titled “The Social Security Myth” that looks at the origins of the social security system.
Is Social Security a Wealth Redistribution Program? – Part 3 — Laissez FaireLaissez Faire.
I had taken a bit of a break from reading philosophy to give my mind a bit of a rest. I re-read for the umpteenth time, “Beguilement” by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is one of my favorite books, series actually.
It was something of a different experience reading it after having read of lot of Ayn Rand’s philosophy as I could see similar themes, especially in the main characters who, over the course of the series, go against what is expected of them and instead work for what gives
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
“In some ultimate sense, the total quantity of resources must of course be declining. However, a resource that would run out centuries after it becomes obsolete, or a thousand years after the sun grows cold, is not a serious practical problem. If it is going to run out within some period that is a matter of practical relevance, then the rising present value of the resource whose exhaustion looms ahead will automatically force conservation, without either public hysteria or political
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
Some good links for this week.
Enjoy!
This is perhaps my favorite article of the week, though there were plenty of good ones, and I quite honestly lost track of some.
With Gun Control, Cost Benefit Analysis Is Amoral
Really nice take on the whole gun control issue. I especially like his statement: “Statistics about how often gun-related crimes occur in the population is no evidence against you. That’s collectivist thinking. The choices made by others are irrelevant to the choices that you
I tend to read a bunch of articles over the course of a week, so I thought I would share some of my favorites from the past week. I am going to try and do this every Wednesday. This is by no means a complete list, but it does include most of the articles that I had particularly made note of, at least since I decided to publish such a list.