Fox Business Does Piece on Atlas Shrugged

By Wednesday January 13, 2010



41 Comments
  1. best cricket phones says:
    1/13/2010 at 2:01 pm

    Well said benjamin.

    Reply
  2. pedro says:
    1/13/2010 at 2:50 pm

    #9 The government pushed for sub-prime loans. Thanks for playing.

    #12 I agree. You comment is a perfect example of that.

    Reply
  3. honeyman says:
    1/13/2010 at 3:19 pm

    Corruption and crime are endemic in any political and economic system. Why would Rand’s capitalist utopia be any different?

    Reply
  4. Wretched Gnu says:
    1/13/2010 at 3:39 pm

    Conservatives are understandably impressed and beguiled by Rand’s revolutionary philosophical axioms, such as A = A.

    When she came up with that, it was such a blow to those pansy French philosophers who were saying A = N. They were left speechless.

    Reply
  5. John Galt says:
    1/13/2010 at 3:43 pm

    Cool, they are making my movie, but you will all have to wait another year.

    Reply
  6. chuck says:
    1/13/2010 at 4:10 pm

    #25 – I think they’re hoping for a government subsidy to make the movie.

    Reply
  7. E@$+ C0@$+ Cr@cK P0+ says:
    1/13/2010 at 4:14 pm

    http://highwitnessnews.blogspot.com/2010/01/gitmo-turns-into-lemonade.html

    GitmoBay is being used in medical relief efforts for Americans in Haiti.

    Real News?

    Reply
  8. be thinkin' says:
    1/13/2010 at 9:21 pm

    #19 Access to the courts is not always a remedy. Steal property from a poor man and he’s going to hire a lawyer and sue? I say call a cop.

    Reply
  9. deowll says:
    1/13/2010 at 10:00 pm

    #11 I think Congress critters are exempt from being arrested no matter how much harm they do.

    #14 Of course people try to rewrite the laws to take advantage of others. This is why in the end democracies and Republics always end in some form of dictatorship in which a handful of government higher ups live well and everybody else is bleeped.

    If you guys actually want to study an Atlas Shrugged situation look at China. It was the high tech leader and most powerful nation on earth bar none at one time.

    What stopped China from taking over the world? Government bureaucrats regulating everything to death. They froze the society in place and stopped change.

    One of the more grimly funny stories out of that time frame occurred when China nationalized the making of the metal parts of farm tools to ensure that the peasants would have access to good tools at reasonable prices even though no problem existed and privatized it after famines occurred due to a lack of good farm tools at reasonable prices.

    The rest of the world moved on while China was locked in stasis by government decree and the Chinese got humiliated by barbarian scum. This is still acid on the Chinese ego.

    The EU is going down this road and so is North America. Much of the world is locked in dictatorships that limit opportunities for economic and scientific advancement and won’t amount to much. The hope is India, Brazil, and China and I have major reservations about them.

    I can see the advance of civilization coming to a screeching halt and stagnating. If you check stagnating cultures are actually the norm just as it is the norm for such cultures to be taken over by more technologically progressives societies.

    Reply
  10. LibertyLover says:
    1/14/2010 at 5:01 pm

    #7, while admire Jesus’s for his teaching, couldn’t abide with all that charitable giving crap.

    Incorrect.

    She believed charity to be a personal decision and encouraged it as a way to help others from a moral standpoint. In her book, “The Virtue of Selfishness,” she describes charity as a moral imperative.

    What she didn’t abide by was believing in a spiritual being you pray to for help.

    #8, So that means murder-for-hire, slavery, etc – all perfectly acceptable, as long as you charge for it. In Ayn Rand’s world, doing anything for “free” would be a crime.

    Incorrect.

    That is a false assumption by those who think “unrestricted” means “immoral.”

    #9, Note that this banker is moral. He refused to indulge in this greed-orgy. He was against the bailouts to help those who did. I think he was correct in his assessment.

    #11, Correct.

    #14, I agree with most of your post. However — “So it is not in human nature to think every man for himself in business, best man wins.“

    I have to disagree with that. Why do you think these humans try to get government to coerce others? Because that is how they fight the “every man for himself” battle. It is immoral, but that is how they do it.

    #16, Under Rand if the owner of the property next to (and upwind from) Stossel turn it into a pig farm, Stossel should be happy the Rand system works.

    If he does feel that way, then he is wrong. This would be a violation of property rights and subject to penalties under the law as such.

    #19, The courts, instead of enforcing property rights, ruled that although the pollution did indeed cause harm to the farmer, the railroad was such a great thing to have that the farmer was just going to have to be outta luck. And the president stuck.

    And that is a travesty.

    #25, THAT’S JUST WRONG!!!! :-)

    Reply
  11. Mr. Fusion says:
    1/14/2010 at 10:44 pm

    #30, Loser,

    #9, Note that this banker is moral. He refused to indulge in this greed-orgy. He was against the bailouts to help those who did. I think he was correct in his assessment.

    The banker lied. The crash depleted ALL major banks and most smaller banks. TARP was to put money back into the financial sector so banks would continue to make loans. If the banks had of used that money to boost the economy instead of covering their bad loans, this recession would not be nearly so bad.

    All modern economies depend upon the flow of credit in order to function. The crash stopped the flow of credit and the economy is suffering for that.

    The capitalization requirement was only made to those banks regulated under the Federal Reserve. BTW, the FED is majority owned by those same banks.

    What the banker failed to point out is what regulations in the financial industry are solely useless and serve only to hinder. It is so much easier to just rant about all those “taxes” and “regulations” without specifying which.

    It reminds me of a local tradesman who complained of how stupid it was to get permits for renovations. He ran for Mayor and that was his platform. Until a house he did burned because he didn’t follow code with the electric or materials. Oh ya, he didn’t have insurance or a permit either. I know, you think that is a good thing.

    Reply
  12. XCowboy2 says:
    1/15/2010 at 3:15 am

    <<<>>

    I hope nobody confuses your nonsense with Rand’s actual writings. She called for the banishment of physical force from human affairs in all matters. Force is destructive to man, his mind, and violates his requirements for survival: his rights.

    Watch the second half. On “Force”

    Reply
  13. LibertyLover says:
    1/15/2010 at 5:24 am

    #31, I would take your post seriously, but everybody knows you are Mouch’s lapdog.

    Your words cannot be trusted until you answer why you would sacrifice others to save your wife.

    Reply
  14. Mr. Fusion says:
    1/15/2010 at 6:06 am

    Rand grew up in the Soviet Union under the communists. The totalitarian communist regulations of “the State owns everything and everything is for the benefit of the State” strongly influenced her thinking.

    Her mantra of “protect us from violent crime but allow business to freely steal” fails for one big reason found in the opening words of the Constitution. “We the People,…” That means it is the people, through their elected representatives, that make the rules by which we govern ourselves.

    Reply
  15. LibertyLover says:
    1/15/2010 at 8:25 am

    #34, Wow, what a coward. Come on, Poison Twin!

    Quit avoiding the question.

    You want to bash other people for being selfish, but you refuse to tell us why you would sacrifice others to save your wife.

    Man up!

    Reply
  16. Zardoz says:
    1/15/2010 at 7:08 pm

    Ayn Rand gave out nothing but simplistic libertarian claptrap. As with all Utopian philosophies it won’t work in the real world.

    Reply
  17. LibertyLover says:
    1/15/2010 at 7:22 pm

    #36, How do you know it won’t work?

    Reply
  18. Rick Cain says:
    1/15/2010 at 7:24 pm

    Ayn Rand was a woman, which for me is more than enough justification to not listen to anything she ever said.

    Reply
  19. Zardoz says:
    1/16/2010 at 10:48 am

    LibertyLover,

    The simple answer is there are no examples of where her philosophy worked.

    Read Plato’s Republic then continue up through other utopian readings through the 19th and 20th centuries. Read about the 19th century utopian experiments in America and Europe, and why they failed.

    If you don’t see the flaw in Rand’s ideas then you are the perfect Libertarian tool.

    Reply
  20. LibertyLover says:
    1/18/2010 at 6:22 am

    #39, Show me where a welfare state survived and I’ll accept your definition.

    Reply

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