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
In this week’s roundup there are podcasts from Yaron Brook and Don Watkins (who is filling in for Yaron on has Radical Capitalist podcast). Amy Peikoff had to cancel her weekly podcast due to a work conflict, but did a “make up” show on Saturday evening.
In this week’s broadcast from Chicago, Yaron discusses inequality, referencing a recent article from The Atlantic, “Total
As I was preparing to write this week’s roundup, I realized another benefit for me in doing them. In taking notes on the key issues being discussed in each of the podcasts, I am more able to make connections and integrate what the hosts are talking about into what I already know. This integration is something we all should try to do more of, and is at times difficult. (I found I can embed the Blogtalkradio shows, so I have done that as well as link to them in the headings.)
Michelangelo’s The Dying Slave Image (c) Britanica.com
The scheduling
In the April 2nd episode of his Radical Capitalist show on Blogtalkradio, Yaron Brook answered a question about concussions in professional football. The concerns about the long-term brain damage stemming from concussions is an issue facing not just professional sports, but sports at all levels. The local television station, WCAX, has run stories about the issue for some time, including the fact that
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
One of the greatest sources of motivation for me, in both my thinking and my posting here on the blog, is listening to talks by Yaron Brook. He is an incredibly engaging and prolific speaker and thanks to platforms such as YouTube I am able to watch far more of these talks than if I could only see those I attended in person. Indeed, I have viewed dozens of videos of his talks from all over the world but have only been to one
During his recent lectures, Yaron Brook has spoken a lot about the evils of equality and the virtues of inequality. For those that are unfamiliar with him or with Ayn Rand’s philosophy this might seem to imply that he is in favor of discrimination by non-essentials, i.e. racism, sexism and etc, but this is the farthest thing from the truth. In his recent talk in Sweden, he spells out exactly in what sense he feels equality has any relevance:
The only sense of equality that means anything
Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute, spent several weeks recently on a speaking tour through Europe and Russia. The theme for these talks, largely, was the theme of his, with Don Watkins, forthcoming book: the idea that equality is unfair and that inequality is moral and just.
This particular talk was given at Högerteknologerna and Fria Moderata Studentförbundet, Sweden. Before he begin the main talk, he commented that in other places where he had given talks the Q&A sessions
Yaron Brook talks capitalism in Warsaw.
Dr. Yaron Brook has been on something of a whirlwind speaking tour over the last week in Europe. One of the seven talks he gave over a six-day period was his Morality of Capitalism delivered in a beautiful venue in Warsaw, Poland to about 200 people.
For those who have watched Yaron’s talks in the past, this one covers familiar ground although I find that each time I listen to the material I notice something different that makes my understanding clearer and a bit more complete. As always,