Long since addressed by Ayn Rand, but this, too, is interesting in that it presents the author's perspective, albeit largely a restatement. It is interesting as The Christian Egoist shows by reference, that this essential problem with "conservatism" is 50 years old. At this point in history, this is not a passing "problem" but an inherent flaw. Ayn Rand refused to endorse Ronald Reagan, and in fact, condemned his campaign. It is interesting to note that Eleanor Roosevelt denied her endorsement of John Kennedy. The essential concept that unites both events is intellectual consistency versus political expediency.

The first item about repealing the PPACA and replacing it w/ nothing is part of the problem w/ Republicans now. Before PPACA we had a legitimate problem-- a patchwork of employer insurance programs that hurt labor mobility. When you say repeal PPACA, people imagine going back to that broken system.

I'd like to get away from "systems" in this sense. People need to know how contracts for medical care will be enforced. Many people probably want a way to spread the risk of disease and even the risk of being born with a detectable genetic predisposition to disease. I agree with those people, but I'd like to see something the spreads the financial risk without creating a "system".

I think something similar when I read your other ideas for repeal: SS, which is has drastically cut poverty, and the Fed, which at least for the past 25 years has done a good job keeping employment and inflation within bounds.

Maybe I cannot comment on this issue b/c I am generally on the liberal side politics. It seems, though, you have to sell repealing these things and replacing it with something like "courts enforcing freely-entered agreements" or something like that and then give some examples.

Right now people think of healthcare, for example, as a system run by large organizations. It never occurs to many people to work out a mutually-beneficial deal with a provider. I'm not the one to tell you how to sell it, but simply saying "repeal" won't work IMHO.

I agree with the Affordable Care Act...abort it before it takes a deep breath.

I don't disagree with you. When I say replace these programs with nothing I'm speaking against an angle some Conservatives are taking against Obamacare, namely "elect us and we'll repeal it and replace it with a different government program." A change of the law that describes how these programs are phased out is fine with me (though we ought to be able to cold-turkey Obamacare).

A 'cold turkey' approach to Social Security goes against my thinking. You are breaking a contract that many of us have been engaged in for decades, and have contributed their share of the contract over their entire working lives. It would be 'theft' to not honor the government's side of this contract.

Eliminate the plan from the youngest working generation, and allow them the opportunity to invest into their own retirement as they see fit.

Yes - definitely already addressed by Rand, but so are most other cultural/political topics at root. The hope is to communicate those things to a modern audience who may not have gotten it from Rand already.