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
It is nice when current events allow you to hammer home a philosophical lesson, in this case, it is the danger of package deals. By package deals I mean the phrase as Ayn Rand meant it:
[Package-dealing employs] the shabby old gimmick of equating opposites by substituting nonessentials for their essential characteristics, obliterating differences. – “How to Read (and Not to Write), The Ayn Rand Letter, I, 26, 3
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
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
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I’ve always had a hard time with the concept of compromise when it comes to government. For reasons I could never really define, I was uneasy by the concept that you should accept something you fundamentally did not agree with in order to obtain something you wanted, or in the case of government, in return for a promise to vote for something you wanted in the future.
Of course I would always be told that government was all about compromise and look at how the Founding Fathers had to compromise
I had a little interaction on Twitter the other day that got me thinking. A dangerous thing as my brother might tell me.
I had posted to Twitter:
Ah, first paycheck of the year, first view of my higher taxes. And people say the government can’t work fast.