Recently this statement from Ayn Rand sparked some debate with me and my friends. "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
To this I said, "Objectiveism! Actually, this is the only part of objectiveism that I don't believe in-its anti altruistic." One of the friends then said, "Jason, a disdain for altruism is the primary component of Objectivism." Needless to say I disagree.
Ayn Rand believes there is a certain glory and necessity to selfishness, and that altruism leads to collectivism, and an infringement on individualism. - if this is true than altruism may in fact be bad, I do not believe that this is true though.
It is argued by Cicero of Rome, and Marcus Aurelius that one can be an individual- but ones primary goal in life is somewhat altruistic. And that Altruism makes one happy, To this I agree with.
Consider this:
If your motivation for altruism is to do good, and receive the joy that comes with doing good to others, isn’t that motivated my self-interest? Therefore, are some types of Altruism motivated, to some extent, by personal gain? For example, lets say I see a homeless man on the street, if I don’t give him a dollar then I am being selfish, (A trait Ayn Rand argues is essential to life) and equates some level of individualism and personal gain= more money. But if I do give him a dollar, in hopes to get that “warm fuzzy feeling inside” (Joy) that comes with helping others isn’t that also motivated by personal gain= Joy and happiness, that you get from serving others, and therefore individualistic?
Ayn Rand’s argument is that Altruism leads to less individual rights, and that leads to socialism.- This is not true!!!
Take the United States for example, we just sent $100,000,000, an aircraft carrier, troops, supplies, and so on and so on over to Haiti, this made me happy, and joyful, I am proud of our government for doing that, our reaction time was swift, and our donations supreme--that was altruistic; and yet our county still maintains a high degree of individual rights and liberties. But you see other counties that are already denying individual rights are actually less altruistic that the USA (a free nation) take for example Communist china, they sent $1,000,000, 0 troops, and 0 supplies to Haiti, less altruistic than the United states, yet some how we still have more freedom. Hillary Clinton said recently “that Denmark was the Happiest country in the world, because they have socialized health care (an obvious infringement on individualism) Yet, how many dollars, and troops, and supplies, and Aircraft Carriers did they send to help Haiti= None, nothing 0!
Look at the 3 examples I have shown you, The USA, China, and Denmark . . . Who do you think has more freedom, and individual liberties? The USA!!!!! Yet who is more Altruistic, The USA!!! And finally who do you think is happier? The USA!
Altruism, is not a bad thing- if it is something you choose to do, Notice- people have to be forced to live under communism, nobody, NOBODY would by choice choose to live under communism; remeber communism is a seemingly altruistic form of government. You see forced Altruism does in fact infringe on indavidualism, and freedom. But if every individual chooses, for themselves, to be altruistic, still living under a capitalist system- then you still maintain a degree of good selfishness, and yet, you still help others, and act altruistically, and still maintain freedoms and indavidual rights- and that my friend, is how it should work- and how it is working now.
What Ayn should have said was, "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never be forced to live for the sake of another man, nor force another man to live for mine."
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Glory of Capitalism
This is a rushed attempt to elucidate my thoughts on Capitalism; I would love to write a lot more. And will, (possible book coming?)
“Capitalism demands the best of every man – his rationality – and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him.”-Ayn Rand
Capitalism: “an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive market and motivation by profit”
In recent years there has been a rising movement to scrutinize and rebuke one of our nations founding concepts-Capitalism. For me personally, this movement reached its pinnacle in an oratory speech- given by a young man at the Claremont high school debate tournament in California. This young man, who claimed to be a Marxist (In lemans-terms: a step higher than pure communism, but not quite Nazism), presented the idea that capitalism is flawed, and that Americas love affaire with capitalism is illogical. He claimed that we need to wake up and realize capitalism for what it is-a farce. With greed and power as it’s only motivator. . . . I wanted to give a rebuttal, and show this mistaken man the truth. It may sound arrogant, but everyone knows that communism is a laughing stock. His mantra . . . is false. Still, I feel the need to crystallize my feelings in this rebuttal:
The argument made by this person, lets call him bob (I really don’t know his name) Bob, argued that capitalism creates a society made up of classes (It does) But in this class system only 3% of the population had any liberty. This 3% were the fat and rich, the powerful, and snobby that ruled the majority of the people: the lower, and middle class. And this system created balkanization between the classes; and was evil. Bob argued that pure communism was the only system that, in the end lifted every individual as a whole. It protects the rights and liberties of the collective by creating and promoting equality. He argued that the elites had created such an illusion of liberty, that they were only able to maintain power through the stupidity of the masses, and the wide acceptance, and love of the flawed system Capitalism.
Bob is wrong, Capitalism is not evil. Communism is evil. I love capitalism, and here is why:
Why capitalism is increasingly scrutinized, and attacked? The answer is simple, in order for capitalism to succeed, one must WORK and do his best. That is, everyone must work, and do their best.
The evil elites that bob described are not selfish, or fat and lazy. The elites got where they are now, through hard work, and economic success. They also got there, not by taking advantage of the lower class majority, but with the support and approval of the lower-class majority. Does this sound familiar? How about the way our American government works? A republic-- Politicians compete and work hard for the approval of “The people” so that one day they can work to serve and better “the people”. --- Entrepreneurs work hard and develop a product, and compete against other products, for the approval of the people. If the entrepreneurs have worked hard enough, their product will be adopted and bought by the people. They will “make bank” and make money.-through their own hard work!
Now once someone is successful, it’s not just a sit back and relax elitist attitude. If you don’t believe me, just take one look at the state of GM, AIG, and other companies that slacked off. They failed! Capitalism requires work, constant work-Real individualism, and initiative (not the false individualism promised by communism, and the support of the collective). The money and fortune earned by people is rightfully theirs, not the governments, not the poor, it’s their money that they earned.
The youth of today have been taught to accept only what is given to them and not what they work for. As human beings, we are driven to strive for more out of life than what is given easily. Work hard, and reap the rewards of our labor, is the philosophy taken on by capitalism. Every person individually has their own desire to do their best, and as a consequence better human society (If every individual try’s, then you don’t have to worry about the collective). This creates competition, to be the best, and to make the most money. This competition produces our doctors, engineers, teachers, armed services, and many other challenging careers. And the more competitive a people are- the better products they produce, thus, making the quality of life perpetually rise competitively.
Why do people want to become doctors, lawyers, or any other prestigious career? The easy answer is money. Under capitalism, the harder you work the more money you get. But what if we implemented communism, or socialism? Wealth would be distributed equally to the people, attempting to create economic equalization.
Suppose you were a doctor living under a capitalistic government. You would pay a lot of money to go to years of schooling, and when you were finally a doctor, you could make the money you wanted, worked for, and deserved. But if communism or socialism were implemented, suddenly, there would be no motivation to work so hard to become a doctor-when you know that the government is only going to take your hard earned cash and give it to the poor, The poor who by the way did no where near the amount of work that you have done. Suddenly, there is a motivation, not to work hard, but to slack off. Because you know, either way your going to be just as wealthy as the guy next to you-no matter how hard either of you work.
Soon there would be no reason to become doctors or lawyers, or any other notable profession (or to work at all for that matter) because you know the government would have your back. While your necessities and life would be covered by the government, the quality of life would invariably and drastically decrease. Whereas with capitalism, there may be some people living in poverty, and there will be a lower class- the quality of life would always be rising- because of competition!
I have created this argument because I believe government intervention only hinders the inherent ability to achieve human greatness. The liberals of this nation have won over our youth with promises of “free” stuff and a great economic equalization. Spreading the wealth is more than a campaign slip-up. It is the core belief of most liberals that people do not earn what they work for, it belongs to the government (Spend a day at a debate tournament in California and you’ll understand what I mean.) What each of us works, sweats, and dreams about is ours and is not for the government to distribute as it sees fit. The battle will be hard, but I am up for the challenge, and indeed- I am up for the challenge, I will work hard to prove my point. Because I am a capitalist! And that is what I do.
“Capitalism demands the best of every man – his rationality – and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him.”-Ayn Rand
Capitalism: “an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive market and motivation by profit”
In recent years there has been a rising movement to scrutinize and rebuke one of our nations founding concepts-Capitalism. For me personally, this movement reached its pinnacle in an oratory speech- given by a young man at the Claremont high school debate tournament in California. This young man, who claimed to be a Marxist (In lemans-terms: a step higher than pure communism, but not quite Nazism), presented the idea that capitalism is flawed, and that Americas love affaire with capitalism is illogical. He claimed that we need to wake up and realize capitalism for what it is-a farce. With greed and power as it’s only motivator. . . . I wanted to give a rebuttal, and show this mistaken man the truth. It may sound arrogant, but everyone knows that communism is a laughing stock. His mantra . . . is false. Still, I feel the need to crystallize my feelings in this rebuttal:
The argument made by this person, lets call him bob (I really don’t know his name) Bob, argued that capitalism creates a society made up of classes (It does) But in this class system only 3% of the population had any liberty. This 3% were the fat and rich, the powerful, and snobby that ruled the majority of the people: the lower, and middle class. And this system created balkanization between the classes; and was evil. Bob argued that pure communism was the only system that, in the end lifted every individual as a whole. It protects the rights and liberties of the collective by creating and promoting equality. He argued that the elites had created such an illusion of liberty, that they were only able to maintain power through the stupidity of the masses, and the wide acceptance, and love of the flawed system Capitalism.
Bob is wrong, Capitalism is not evil. Communism is evil. I love capitalism, and here is why:
Why capitalism is increasingly scrutinized, and attacked? The answer is simple, in order for capitalism to succeed, one must WORK and do his best. That is, everyone must work, and do their best.
The evil elites that bob described are not selfish, or fat and lazy. The elites got where they are now, through hard work, and economic success. They also got there, not by taking advantage of the lower class majority, but with the support and approval of the lower-class majority. Does this sound familiar? How about the way our American government works? A republic-- Politicians compete and work hard for the approval of “The people” so that one day they can work to serve and better “the people”. --- Entrepreneurs work hard and develop a product, and compete against other products, for the approval of the people. If the entrepreneurs have worked hard enough, their product will be adopted and bought by the people. They will “make bank” and make money.-through their own hard work!
Now once someone is successful, it’s not just a sit back and relax elitist attitude. If you don’t believe me, just take one look at the state of GM, AIG, and other companies that slacked off. They failed! Capitalism requires work, constant work-Real individualism, and initiative (not the false individualism promised by communism, and the support of the collective). The money and fortune earned by people is rightfully theirs, not the governments, not the poor, it’s their money that they earned.
The youth of today have been taught to accept only what is given to them and not what they work for. As human beings, we are driven to strive for more out of life than what is given easily. Work hard, and reap the rewards of our labor, is the philosophy taken on by capitalism. Every person individually has their own desire to do their best, and as a consequence better human society (If every individual try’s, then you don’t have to worry about the collective). This creates competition, to be the best, and to make the most money. This competition produces our doctors, engineers, teachers, armed services, and many other challenging careers. And the more competitive a people are- the better products they produce, thus, making the quality of life perpetually rise competitively.
Why do people want to become doctors, lawyers, or any other prestigious career? The easy answer is money. Under capitalism, the harder you work the more money you get. But what if we implemented communism, or socialism? Wealth would be distributed equally to the people, attempting to create economic equalization.
Suppose you were a doctor living under a capitalistic government. You would pay a lot of money to go to years of schooling, and when you were finally a doctor, you could make the money you wanted, worked for, and deserved. But if communism or socialism were implemented, suddenly, there would be no motivation to work so hard to become a doctor-when you know that the government is only going to take your hard earned cash and give it to the poor, The poor who by the way did no where near the amount of work that you have done. Suddenly, there is a motivation, not to work hard, but to slack off. Because you know, either way your going to be just as wealthy as the guy next to you-no matter how hard either of you work.
Soon there would be no reason to become doctors or lawyers, or any other notable profession (or to work at all for that matter) because you know the government would have your back. While your necessities and life would be covered by the government, the quality of life would invariably and drastically decrease. Whereas with capitalism, there may be some people living in poverty, and there will be a lower class- the quality of life would always be rising- because of competition!
I have created this argument because I believe government intervention only hinders the inherent ability to achieve human greatness. The liberals of this nation have won over our youth with promises of “free” stuff and a great economic equalization. Spreading the wealth is more than a campaign slip-up. It is the core belief of most liberals that people do not earn what they work for, it belongs to the government (Spend a day at a debate tournament in California and you’ll understand what I mean.) What each of us works, sweats, and dreams about is ours and is not for the government to distribute as it sees fit. The battle will be hard, but I am up for the challenge, and indeed- I am up for the challenge, I will work hard to prove my point. Because I am a capitalist! And that is what I do.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
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