In my posts on property rights(here, here, and here) I illustrated that such rights have been eroded over time, especially since the 1930s. Today it is often the case that you can own, technically, a piece of property but be unable to make use of it as you determine is in your best interest. Ayn Rand discusses this on her essay “The New Fascism: Rule by Consensus.”
Ownership without control is a contradiction in terms: it means “property,” without the right to use it or
It is amazing how many great quotes I find when I read Ayn Rand’s essays. Here is yet another one from her essay titled “The New Fascism: Rule by Consensus.”
In this quote she is referring to the fact that most liberals who advocate the redistribution of wealth do not bother to differentiate between the earned and unearned, or to concern themselves with the origin of the wealth. And especially they have no concern what kind of person is ruined under such a system and what
In reading Ayn Rand’s essay “The New Fascism: Rule by Consensus,” she has what I found to be a perfect and succinct description of the current state of our government and economy.
A mixed economy is rule by pressure groups. It is an amoral, institutionalized civil war of special interests and lobbies, all fighting to seize a momentary control of the legislative machinery, to extort some special privilege at one another’s expense by an act of government–i.e.
[My primary inspiration for these posts comes from the article “Property and Principle” from the Objective Standard, and Eric Daniels’ course “Property Rights in American History,” available from the Ayn Rand e-store.]
In the previous post in this series, I covered how rights, specifically property rights, were seen at the time of the founding of the United States. In summary, property rights were seen as essential rights, without which no other rights were truly
I’m currently reading “How Capitalism Saved America.” I am still in the first chapter or so, and I came across an interesting quote about the effect of government spending on the economy.
Except for spending to protect property rights, enforce the law, and protect citizens from for an aggressor, all government spending crowds out private spending and weakens the vitality of capitalism.
Given this, it is easy to imagine what damage the government is actually doing to the economy,
Here are links to this week’s podcasts that I find to be interesting and informative.
Philosophy in Action with Dr. Diana Hsieh
I am currently listening to a great course by historian Eric Daniels titled “Property Rights in American History.” I am just finishing the first part, out of three, and he mentions a short essay by James Madison on Property. The essay covers what property is and the government’s role in protecting it. It is interesting to note how broadly property was defined by the founders. Sadly the essay illustrates just
Great video from Yaron Brook regarding the potential (likely?) United States intervention in the Syrian civil war. (Click here to skip down to the video.) This is same position, though much more completely, that I took in a recent letter to my state’s congressional delegation.
I have received responses from both our state’s Senators, and while both express objections to or reservations on the President’s proposal, they are sadly lacking in principle. I am excerpting from
Recently I set up a Google Alert for mentions of Ayn Rand and I receive several emails each day about articles that mention her name. On August 2nd one popped up for an article on the Christian Science Monitor website. The title of the article is “Selfish traits no good: Nice guys finish first, evolution researchers say.” The first couple paragraphs set the tone for the whole article.
Nature is cold, hard, and ruthless, and only the most aggressive – and selfish –
Yaron Brook guest hosts every other week on Leonard Peikoff’s podcast, talking about current events, politics and more.
In this week’s episode he covers questions on: