Atlas Shrugged today?

[Jhhnn]

The new version of the book- updated for modern times-

http://mcsweeneys.net/2008/11/20tucker.html

 

[Zebo]

Republicans lower tax mantra means lower for fat cats (income tax and inheritance) and they never saw a regressive tax they didn't like. Biggest smokescreen ever to maintain their generational market position.

You are going to see this market position in action, presenting big problems for Obama. I personally know many people who are rich, I mean like never have to work again, leisure class, and they have told me and are putting in practice a ride out for four years. Fire all dead wood, make 1 man do 3's job, or else or just closing up shop....Conspiracy? Sure, and not a very quiet one, just to get their men back in white house or get Obama to capitulate and become a right winger on economics. Laugh all you want Ayn Rand is still very much alive.

 

[dphantom]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Republicans lower tax mantra means lower for fat cats (income tax and inheritance) and they never saw a regressive tax they didn't like. Biggest smokescreen ever to maintain their generational market position.

You are going to see this market position in action, presenting big problems for Obama. I personally know many people who are rich, I mean like never have to work again, leisure class, and they have told me and are putting in practice a ride out for four years. Fire all dead wood, make 1 man do 3's job, or else or just closing up shop....Conspiracy? Sure, and not a very quiet one, just to get their men back in white house or get Obama to capitulate and become a right winger on economics. Laugh all you want Ayn Rand is still very much alive.

And that is why Rand, as simplistic as Atlas Shrugged may be, is correct. I would do the same. Selfish, you bet. I am interested in profit. The more profit, the more I can invest to make more profit. The more I invest, the more equipment, people, buildings etc I need to lease/purchase. And surprisingly enough, I pay more in taxes.

On the other hand, I can hunker down, ride out the coming tax increases, stop investing and like you said, get rid of excess capacity. And that's what I plan to do.

 

[Brigandier]

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
The new version of the book- updated for modern times-

http://mcsweeneys.net/2008/11/20tucker.html

Too bad those types of people are the looters we so loather, looters sanctioned by our government with bailouts and rescue funds. The men of mind are the engineers, scientists, men of intellect that actually produce services of real value, not derivative value. Atlas Shrugged could be updated for the modern times, but the evil men would still be the fat cats that run to government to protect and support their profits at the expense of everyone else.

What is the main problem with Rand, again? Most just seem to say it's juvenile, and people outgrow it. That's not really an argument.

 

[Jhhnn]

What is the main problem with Rand, again? Most just seem to say it's juvenile, and people outgrow it. That's not really an argument.

It's not an argument- it's just the truth- deal with it.

We all grow out of childish beliefs, or we should, and faith in Randian hogwash is no different than believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy- it just occurs at a different phase of development.

 

[Brigandier]

Originally posted by: Jhhnn

What is the main problem with Rand, again? Most just seem to say it's juvenile, and people outgrow it. That's not really an argument.

It's not an argument- it's just the truth- deal with it.

We all grow out of childish beliefs, or we should, and faith in Randian hogwash is no different than believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy- it just occurs at a different phase of development.

That is still not an argument, you can provide no facts or logic to back up what about her philosophy is hogwash. What do you live your life by? What is your motive power? Why is it so wrong to subscribe to Objectivist mind-sets to help cope with the realities of world?

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: Brigandier

Originally posted by: Jhhnn

What is the main problem with Rand, again? Most just seem to say it's juvenile, and people outgrow it. That's not really an argument.

It's not an argument- it's just the truth- deal with it.

We all grow out of childish beliefs, or we should, and faith in Randian hogwash is no different than believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy- it just occurs at a different phase of development.

That is still not an argument, you can provide no facts or logic to back up what about her philosophy is hogwash. What do you live your life by? What is your motive power? Why is it so wrong to subscribe to Objectivist mind-sets to help cope with the realities of world?

This has already been explained. Her ideas are juvenile because they are excessively simplistic and rely on an idea of human nature that has no bearing on reality. Real people don't act like the people in her books, yet she used them as a manifesto for how real people should act. This is why her books are so much like the Communist Manifesto, just retarded in the other direction.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: Evan
Ayn Rand seems like great dogma in some alternate world, perhaps some exoplanet 20 lightyears away. But in this world and at this time, humans simply don't respond to economics and business the way she believes. It's why she never came up with an effective model to predict people's reactions to economic distress even when gov't hadn't intruded into the market as severely as they are now. And save for a couple juvenile kooks who believe in no gov't and taxes (see Grinch), this is still quite clearly the superior alternative to doing nothing and allowing unemployment to skyrocket to 15% (like in the early Depression).

Agreed, the main problem with her followers is that it just doesn't work in the real world. If all humans behaved rationally and EMH existed in the "strong" format and human psychology were perfect, it'd be a fine system to have. However, economics doesn't live in that kind of vacuum.

This is why Ron Paul won't succeed in any major election, his viewpoint lives in a vacuum stuck back in the 19th century.