Ayn Rand

Had to read her books in high school, a short read would be anthem. In a nut shell, she places more emphasis on the individual rather than the collective. With that said, she didn't exactly live by her own philosophy, she lived on social security/welfare and justified it by saying since she's 'against it' its alright for her to take advantage of it (or something along those lines).

I agree with some of her points and disagree with other.

Isn't SS just getting back the money that was involuntarily taken from me?

Mr Neutron said:

Isn't SS just getting back the money that was involuntarily taken from me?

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Its only taken away from you if you earn an income by being employed or if you're paying into it directly. A business owner doesn't get social security later on unless they pay into it directly, or were also employed on the side (thats the way I understand it at least from my accountant).

A bit besides the point obviously.

Are you justified in taking money that was unfairly taken from you through government assistance? I believe so, I only made the point ahead of time because it will be brought up.

Read the Virtue of Selfishness, it's Ayn Rand in a nuttshell.

She is opposed to government control, a lot of people argue that Alan Greenspan adopted her philosophy which is the cause of the housing bubble. This is FALSE and it is a desperate attempt to blame deregulation for the financial crisis. In all actuality Greenspan was an interventionist seen by his actions as the fed chairman.

she is basically republican in todays lingo but like most like republicans she was really a libertarian at heart, she just never realized that and she didn't give up hope in government in the end she thought government could be fixed and she hated libertarians. Both Free Market Libertarians and Conservatives are inspired by her. Merkzilla put it pretty well, Llike most conservatives she didn't practice what she preached, and really believed that big government could be good although preached Free Market Libertarian think.

Of course thats the major flaw with any statist ideology, in good intentions, and to hold out for hope they believe that government can be a force for good or can be fixed. I feel like we gave that about 10,000 years long enough. It is important to recognize that all ideolgies are forms of "live stock management" and treating humans as "livestock" is always inhumane, unjust, not based in philosophical prinicipals and understands and often in the realm of ethics which also make no fucking sense whatsoever simply because ethics assumes that evil people care about them.

So this is why the statist ultimately push Ayn Rand, because its just another way to subvert libertarian and anarchist thinkers(individualist) into believing government can be a force for good. The very foundation of the Republican party today is this Libertarian guise.