What does Ayn Rand have to do with lettuce?
Ayn Rand was featured on the BBC's "My Favourite Political Thinker" series. Charlie Wolf an American conservative commentator living in London talks about how Ayn Rand positively impacted his life.
- Hot
- New
- Categories...
- Producer's Lounge
- Producer's Vault
- The Gulch: Live! (New)
- Ask the Gulch!
- Going Galt
- Books
- Business
- Classifieds
- Culture
- Economics
- Education
- Entertainment
- Government
- History
- Humor
- Legislation
- Movies
- News
- Philosophy
- Pics
- Politics
- Science
- Technology
- Video
- The Gulch: Best of
- The Gulch: Bugs
- The Gulch: Feature Requests
- The Gulch: Featured Producers
- The Gulch: General
- The Gulch: Introductions
- The Gulch: Local
- The Gulch: Promotions
- Marketplace
- Members
- Store
- More...
Wealth is created by people who make things, grow things, fish things out of the water, and dig things out of the ground. All the rest of us who do not do one of those four things lives off of that created wealth. The value of this wealth should be determined by a free market with Individuals trading in free association with each other. Do not confuse wealth creation with making money as they are entirely different things.
Money is printed or coined or digitized as a means of exchanging that wealth and should exist in an amount which accurately reflects the value of that created wealth.
The equation works only in one direction; wealth creation allows for money creation. The fiscal insanity of the 20th and 21st centuries lies in the belief that, somehow, creating money will create wealth. It never has worked and never will work.
Counterfeit ought to be defined as money created in excess of the value of created wealth. Whether individuals or governments counterfeit money, it should be illegal.
Individuals who create wealth should be free to spend their wealth as they see fit during their lives, and, as they choose after death according to their will. They should be willing to pay for a military force to protect them from external enemies, a police force to protect them from internal criminals, and a system of courts to adjudicate criminal acts and contractual disputes. Any additional government spending is confiscation of created wealth and, historically, has destroyed every country which allowed Government to run and control their economy.
So when it comes to personal relationships, for him, Rand doesn't offer him much to go on. His worldview makes it difficult for him to understand that personal relationships that hinge on charity and altruism aren't as healthy, in the long run, as those which have a foundation of self-interest.
It took me decades to figure this out for myself: that, in any relationship with another person, if there is absolutely NO WIN for me, i'm not going to be happy in that relationship.
I may help people understand how to solve problems for themselves, so they win, but the satisfaction of having helped them figure it out is a win for me. The other two bozos on the "panel" would support pure altruism.
Why is it so difficult to explain this to people?
What causes poverty? Lack... of... money. If I had a trunkfull of money... I wouldn't be poor, would I?
So, where does money come from? Commerce. if you have nothing else to trade, you have the sweat of your brow and the creativity of your mind. You either use these to the benefit of another *in exchange for an amount of money* measuring their worth to the other, or you use them to create goods of your own, which you then trade to another *in exchange for an amount of money* measuring their worth to the other.
The "fish" story explains the difference between the two philosophies so well. "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and he'll steal your markets."
Okay, okay, the 2nd part really goes, "... and you feed him for a lifetime"... but my version makes the contrast clearer, IMO. When you give a man a fish, you give him the means to fill his belly... until the fish is gone. When you teach him to fish, you give him the means to fill his belly whenever it's empty. A diet of fish is boring; so he can trade some of his excess fish for the excess corn of a farmer. Holy crap... you created a capitalist! TWO capitalists, actually.
I love iJustine (Justine Ezarik - http://www.youtube.com/user/ijustine) She's beautiful, she's a gamer, she's creative and playful and above all... an entrepreneur.
But, every year she takes part in a charity event, and every year she promotes "Charity Water" (I think that's what it's called), which is a charity where people go to the 3rd world and dig deep water wells for them.
It drives me crazy, and once I asked her why it wouldn't be better to go teach them how to find and dig their own deep water wells? (this was not a popular question with her fans).
I got to the 6:10 mark before posting this, I'm going to go watch the rest of the video. Other comments say it goes downhill. I still don't understand why people can't "get it".
You have to be VERY careful not to confuse money with value. Germans in the 1920's had baskets full of money but still couldn't buy anything because of hyperinflation. You could look at Argentina from 1975 to 1991 or Brazil from 1967-1994 for other examples (or see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflat...)
What you actually need is a medium of trade that has intrinsic value. Paper money's value is extrinsic - it is only as good as people's faith in it. Value always begins with human capital - whether ideas or manual labor. That is ultimately what money represents and what you so simply and pointedly illustrate in your corn for fish example.
http://www.plusaf.com/linkedin/linked-in...