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From: brittle13
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  • That lady was so rude. "Now that I'm more educated..." What does that mean?!

    Ayn Rand is super sweet, but she knows when to stand up and call people out when they are being impolite.

  • @ 8:50 Donahue goes Soul Train

  • some interesting legit schit!

  • The lady at 4.52 does well to raise the subject of the Illuminati, but there's no reference to that in the "Atlas Shrugged" book unless she means the secret hideaway of John Galt and his free energy machine. But that's not the same thing as the Illuminati.

  • I like Rand but I can't see how one can oppose initiation of force and at the same time support Israel.

  • @dubified89 She should pay a visit to a housing estate in Gaza just after an Israeli air-raid!

  • @dubified89 I think she'd biased as a result of her ethnic background as a Jew.

  • Ms. Rand is right, Mr. Donahue is wrong. The lady in the audience was very impolite

  • And let me register my protest against these hippies too. This is the problem with most Ayn Rand-haters and bashers. Before presenting their usually FLAWED arguments, they begin to tell tales and lies-- that 10 or so years ago they read Ayn Rand, but now they found her to be wrong. Well, if they actually understood or read Rand many years ago, then why MISREPRESENT her views? A careful study of their empty arguments simply proves they didn't understand her views and that they're simply lying!

  • I wish that rude, ignorant, hippyish woman questioner were still alive today to prove her utter IDIOCY. Where's ITT now?

  • The preamble Rand was insulted by: "Fifteen years ago I was impressed with your books and I sort of felt that your philosophy was proper. Today, however, I'm more educated and I find that …"

    This is a passive-aggressive insult for those who lack courage and self-knowledge. The implication is that Rand's work may fool a teenager, but anyone with some education and access to the press will see through it. This is reinforced by the way the speaker continues condescendingly "It's very basic ..."

  • This is why I am a Milton Friedman Libertarian. "I DO NOOOOT SANCTTION....IMPOLITENESS AND I AM NOT THE VICTIM OF.....HIPPIES!" HAHAHAHAHAHA

  • Donahue is chauvinist pig!

  • ITT and Xerox....where are they now?

  • @SEANFIR You fail to realize that if the Allied Powers would of allowed Germany to have a free market economy and not blame them for WW1, then Hitler never would of gotten into power. Not only that, Hitler stood for everything she was against. Where the hell do you get your ideas from?

  • @Isabella8466 Actually, Rand is correct. Look at the United States government today. We are broke, yet our government has been very powerful and has recently tried to pass more bills to increase that power. Money plays a role when it comes to power, but it is not always a deciding factor.

  • "Money is not powerful in politics," Rand.

    Rand is obviously out of breath from smoking all those, "rational cigarettes."

  • It's as if Hitler designed her to vindicate all of his actions.

  • she's hilarious, would make a great grandmother round the dinner table

  • In a laissez-faire system, money has no political power. It is the "mixed economy" regulatory state that has made all the corruption possible.

  • this woman is an idiot

    i cant believe they made us read her books in school

    oh my

  • @TheMetalFanaticShow

    My sympathy. Unfortunately, I made a choice to read her nonsense.

  • 0:21 Rand rolling her eyes

  • ITT was a victim was a free market. As Rand noted would happen...

  • It’s interesting watching this 32 years later and seeing how prescient Rand was.

  • in obbservation of ms rand, she is amused by those who disagree and hold them in contempt. she is delighted in accolades and dismisses her detractors. she had no ability to feel compassion or empathy for another human. yes, she was intellegent and very interesting, but was so wrong on so many things. it amazes me how she assumed the free market can regulate itself. there were monopolies before government intervention. government is the only entity that can controll abuses of the greed of man.

  • HAHAHAHHAHA illuminati theorist in 1979

  • Money is power.. money aint worth shit.

  • ITT - GONE, XEROX - GONE, GM - really?...

  • Ayn Rand: "I didn't come here to be judged."

    vs.

    Ayn Rand: "Judge and be prepared to be judged."

  • I remember reading something of her's, a quote a long time ago, and she said "Judge, ...... and be prepared to be judged." Maybe it came from a novel, but I think I read it in the Objectivist Newsletter.

  • WTF is ITT? they kkep on talking about ITT taking over the world? Obviously they were wrong about ITT.

  • 4:55  Wow this whole Illuminati thing is ancient!

  • So when will Goldman Sachs go bankrupt? 

  • The woman was impolite. She didn't need to have the prologue about being "more educated". I, too, would have winced. Ayn Rand calls a spade a spade and I like her for it.

  • Does ITT exist today? No. Rand was right.

  • wow this illuminati crap has been around forever

  • @broncofan92slay Yes, idiots have been around forever

  • This question and answer segment is similar to a bunch of street fighters lining up to fight Mike Tyson, as he knocks each of them out with one swift punch and moves on to the next.

  • @314Aurelius So was it Ayn Rand who raped Desiree Washington?

  • ayn rand is right. at one point in the interview she talks about how people are so easily fooled by the colleges. that girl was supposedly "more educated" after college and she was freaking out about ITT owning everything. They went fucking bankrupt!

  • I love how this "impolite" woman says in effect that only ignorant people believe Ayn Rand's bullshit philosophy. Priceless! I wish I was there to laugh in Ayn Rand's ugly troll face. lol

  • @gavinbarber Ok dude and just look at what your liberal bullshit philosophy has brought us. Trillions in debt? High unemployment? An entitled welfare state that doesn't feel the need to work? If you find something wrong with being objective and a competent individual then, by definition, you're irrational.

  • @The727stpete727 Conservatives outspend liberals by a margin, just an EASILY RESEARCHABLE fact. Only difference they're too stepford to admit they waste money.

  • @psynema Really? you say that when obama has spent more than any other American president in history? Idc about either party, just about what's right, but you need to do your research about gov't spending because that was a moronic statement.

  • Before FDR put in Glass Steagall = great depression

    After Steagall repealed = market crashes. 

    Conservatism and deregulation DESTROYS the economy. Privatized savings accounts? Tried that in the 1920s. There is no respect or responsibility for other people's money by banks.

  • @psynema Look at the 18th and 19th century where there was the greatest increase in output in the history of the world as well as the greatest outpour of private charity. That was a time in which free trade was promoted on a global scale and laissez-faire capitalism was the dominant political philosophy. How do you explain the most successful century in the history of the world? And you really think that government does a better job with people's money than private banks? Who the fuck taught you

  • @The727stpete727 Dude that was in the 1800s, get real, it's 2011, stop the 1913 bull shit, you would NEVER want to live like they did in the 18 and 1900s, you can't be serious. And the 1900s was the most successful.

    And Glass Steagall WAS MAKING the banks do a better job with people's money, it's NOT GOVERNMENT handling the money at all, WHO THE FUCK TAUGHT YOU?

  • @psynema Do you know what taxes are? Government is the only institution that can force you to give them their money, it is always voluntary in a private banking system. And you have to look at the growth of the economy, not simply living conditions thats naive as fuck. Look what has happened in the 20th century when far left presidents like carter and obama get elected, inflation through the roof and the economy goes to shambles. The principles Ayn Rand advocates are still valid today.

  • @The727stpete727 No tell me what is this Tax? Stereotypical RW loudmouth screaming because there's no logic or research in their argument. Inflation is low nowadays - ie Chris Christie says so himself.

    1800s...government spending to buy and develop the LA Purchase, Gadsen Purchase, and Manifest Destiny...boom. You're through.

  • @psynema HAHAHAHA inflation is at 18% right now, check your facts. Government spending less than 2% of income throughout a good portion of the 1800s. You have no idea what you're talking about. Quit talking out of your ass and go beg for government handouts.

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  • @orbital92hotmail You aren't the first unintelligent cracka that I have heard speak.

  • @AnarchoAssassin I'm sure that is the case, just ask your momma.

  • Ayn -what a fucken machine. I can only hope that I might be 1% of her. She rocks!!!!

  • other than her answer on the middle east this woman has a brilliant philosiphy

  • I don't understand why she do not answer the question since the question is still out there without this impolite woman asking it!

  • what is that Asian dude talking about uhh duh duuhh uhh stupid.

  • @AnarchoAssassin SOME SECRET GOOK SHIT,

  • @AnarchoAssassin He just finished sniffing your mother's underwear and wanted to know how he could get to China Town fast.

  • "I want to answer the preceding question doesn't anyone want to answer POLITELY?" LOOOL

  • That's the american arrogance and you wonder why communism and islam is working together to destroy your country. "I used to agree with you but now that I'm more educated" Who the hell does she thinks she is? It's like what you read on imdb.com "I used to respect this star but now that he did this I lost all respect for him" Who gives a crap about your stupid respect?

  • saying i used to agree but now i'm more educated is indirectly implying rands viewpoint is uneducated

  • "I am not the victim of hippies."

    I love this woman.

  • That woman WAS rude.

  • @caisamadrid Yeah and on top of that can you believe follow her nutjob cult to this day?

  • I wish Phil Donohue would stop screaming at her, shut the fuck up!

  • on 9:04 Rand says "money is not power in the political sense. You can not buy control." If you believe that I have a bridge I wanna sell you.

  • @TruthRadiator She's absolutely right on this. Money buys propaganda to convince people to elect candidates that can be controlled. You can't just buy political leaders or power directly, you have to go through the people's minds -- you must have their consent. If this were not true there would be no propaganda, no fox news, no political posturing by representatives, no campaigns, no elections.

  • @boostwrx If only that were true. It happens all over the world. Do you think the U.S. govt. is immune to being bought off? Congress consistently votes against the will of their own people. Congressmen rarely ask their constituents what they should do. PAC's find clever ways to fund their favorites for a reason. Most Americans want out of these ridiculous wars to help us out of debt. It was pretty much left out of the debt ceiling debates; except from a handful of senators/reps.

  • @boostwrx Propaganda is most effective on those who throw away reason for security and false promises. In other words, the faithful & naive.

  • The audience members are fucking idiots. They can barely speak English.

  • I love Rand's reaction about the "Illuminati", hahaha.

  • lol ask the koch bros if money = power, political power

  • @5:12

    Bilderburgers XD 

  • Very interesting to listen to the progress of this interview. Parts 1 and 2 is all reasonable and believable. Then the MINUTE someone remotely challenges Rand, her EGO kicks in. She did this throughout her life. All about open marriage (during the 50 year marriage Donahue mentions) but once her lover cheated on her, he is banished from her circle. Rails against social programs of any kind, but relied upon Social Security and Medicare before dying of cancer in the 80s. Narcissistic hypocrite.

  • @marubione Idiot! Social Security and Medicare is the money that government EXTORTED FROM INDIVIDUALS.

    If you expect any individual to decline Social Security and Medicare payments, you have to refund ALL Social Security and Medicare taxes to such individual.

  • Donahue: Dont be soooo sensitive.

    What a hypocrite lol he was so sensitive he wouldnt get off the topic

  • money is only power in the political sense when you have a mixed economy.

  • @r29 you pathetic amateur. Real power is the power of ideas. show that altruism is a social virtue and you have real power over people.

  • @srinivaskari I don't see your point. If you want power over people just play to their greed and fear.

  • That's one hell of a strong woman. (I'm say she's nice or rude, right or wrong). But, she is one hell of a strong woman.

  • "Money is not power in the political sense."

    Right, money only entitles the rich to more "free speech" (according to Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commision) allowing them to finance the political party that will do what they want.

  • 1970's was the time when Americans where afraid of XEROX,ITT etc.

    Where are they now? Markets went over them like a steamroller.

    If Americans wanted cheap and fuel efficient cars in the 1980's they should have destroy all tariff and government prevention of Japanese imports.

  • Rand was right. Today research literature call it "conglomerate discount" that means stock market devalue conglomerates because of their innate inefficiency.

  • Notice how when Ayn finally lays out exactly how the womans' question was impolite @3:35, and the audience finally starts backing her actions (through applause) Donahue shuts the audience up.

  • @jnick1980 BRILLIANT ANALYSIS. That ending is pretty much apparent in her demeanor . Perfect encapsulation of the entire thread.

  • I think the Gov hired those idiots interrogating with such a not natural state challenging the frequencies of the teacher.

  • @fertileharmony , nah. It was like four years after Watergate. People demanded a lot more from speakers back then...Vietnam, and lies were very much in the consciousness of people. Remember Rand came out ith her book in the 50s and it was very conformist back then...this interview was in the 70s....Rand wasnt too civil with very aware and conscious people.

  • At 5:14, the lady NAILED IT! John Todd was a former member of the Masons and also suggested Atlas Shrugged was the blueprint. The Rothchilds, Rockefeller and Bildebergers were essentially the architects of the current Geo-Global Policy, Financial and Media empire now existing today and profiteers of war in previous decades.

  • @jnick1980 Absolutely. And these deluded narcissists have manipulated their way into positions of power in the government and are controlling the media. The schools in the US do not teach critical thinking. What are we to do?

  • She is so wrong when she says that today, the best educated are those who did not go to university. Only the ignorant believe this. I am always beside myself with joy when I read the books written by university educated scholars in the past 30 years. They are, for the most part, far superior to the books written in prior years. We are certainly evolving. But the average person generally does not read these books. It's a shame. Instead, they read media hyped best sellers.

  • There is something funny about her saying the word "hippies" ......

  • She's becoming adgitated!!! :P

    No, but she is awesome.

  • I don't want Ayn Rand to force me to NOT pay taxes. I want to pay taxes and I want those taxes to be used to provide for those who are unable to provide for themselves. I want a government that does not wage war, that does not back military coups in other countries, that provides for those who cannot provide for themselves and that makes reparations for those it has harmed.

  • @elizabethfaraone You've demonstrated exactly how private investment would work in a Capitalist society, because you WANT to help those people. I smoked for almost 10 years, personally, I don't think ANYONE should have to pay for me to be on a lung machine at 80, but in a socialist society, you would have NO CHOICE to what or to whom your taxes go.

  • @thespian83 There are a handful of psychopaths that control our societies. Rand was a part of that handful. We must never let them sit in positions of power. They are destroying our world. I don't have a problem caring for the healthcare of EVERYONE, no matter what caused their illness. If you needed to smoke in order to calm your nerves, I don't condemn that. I've never been a smoker.. I want my taxes to go towards healthcare, survival of the poor, education, green technology, infrastructure.

  • Wow ... Rand is right, the lady WAS being rude because rather than merely disagreeing, she implied that Rand was uneducated. Nowadays we are so rude to each other that this sort of thing just slips by us! No wonder the art of dialogue is failing when we treat each other like all differences of opinion must be due to a lack of intelligence or education!

  • I really like her! She's right on target when it comes to goverment entitlements and individualism vs. collectivism.

  • @2:27 that bitch looks like Ms Torrence lol

  • Rand sounds like a moron at the beginning.

  • I'm an executive for a very large company, Ayn's point in how we produce products for consumers is correct. We give them what they want, then when they demand something else we readjust accordingly.

  • @maltodextrin1000 I've worked for shallow executives like you. But I no longer support you with my intelligence, that you all so desperately clamored for because of your severe lack of it.

  • I wonder if her dear industrialists would agree to put someone without a degree (and most likely from a very expensive university) in a management position. I'd love to see them looking at such a job application from a "self-taught" person and saying "oh, looks like this guy really knows the trade".

  • I agree that the preface to the question was needlessly condescending (perhaps unintentionally), but Rand is ridiculously defensive. Can't she just answer the question and move on?

  • The preface to the woman's question was that now that she's more "educated" (read: programmed by socialist professors), she has discarded Rand's objectivism. This IS impolite, and she never offered a substantive argument to Rand's free market. What these dishonest clowns do is confuse crony capitalism with real free market theory, and then say therefore let's have total socialism.

  • @BurningOrchids ..."socialist" professors is a matter of objectivity or subjectivity. Rand is too sensitive to those opposed to her ideology, defeating the very "logical objectivity" she purports to espouse. The crony capitalism is implicit within any "free market" in that the originators and capitalists despised competition. Why else would they have put a private Federal Reserve Bank in place in 1914? there is no "free market theory" because wealth and power is self-perpetuating.

  • @BurningOrchids ...there has never been a real free market, and never will be one. Oligarchical rule has been the order of the day for 4 centuries. It isnt about to change now that some "philosopher" postulates something that isnt in the best interest of the monopoly. The dishonest clowns have think tanks that mask genocide via "geopolitical strategem". "Programmed by socialist professors" is correct in that Rockefeller foundations fund universities. objectivism, like democracy is illusory

  • @BurningOrchids ROFL "programmed by socialist professors"

  • damn there are a lot of socialists in that audience nobody wants to pay for education, food and gas.

  • Rand is right. The woman was rude. And she is right that it's always the through government priviliges that coperations take over and control everythin.

  • And how it is be free AND poor.

  • Ayn Rand. Real name Alisa Zinov'yevna (Jewish)

  • "You cannot buy control"

    You cannot say anything more clueless than that. Though this moron tries later when she says you should home-school your kids and they'll be better educated than those who are taught by people with advanced degrees in the subjects they teach.

    How is it that this vacuous old hag was able to convince so many Americans? Oh, that's right, Americans are by and large ignorant baboons.

  • What a petulant old child. How laughable that so many little slaves go around licking the anus of this half-witted idiot. She only lived in the US all but a dozen or so of her years on the planet, and she's such a genius she couldn't get her spoken English any better than this?

  • Hahahaha...ITT, Xerox, General Motors..."What if they take over the world?"... Look at 'em now

  • donahue is such a douche

  • donahue is such a douche

  • She's totally right about that the rudeness of that that womans question

  • she is right. It is rude to say "I used to agree with you but now that I am more educated..." Granted the woman wasn't trying to be rude but nevertheless was to preface her question like that....

  • @robertchflynn what a total dipshit the interviewer was in trying to glaze over the rudeness of the comment.. It was obvious Ann understood the girl probably wasn't intending to be rude but only cared that the question was asked in a rude way..

  • @SHIBBYiPANDA ...she was just as rude with the "hippie" and "half wit" and "savages" comments. Very condescending. She was just from a different generation (very conformist and obidient 50s, segregation, lynching etc)...these were opinionated WOMEN asking the tough questions, and they should be lauded. I commend all of them. Nowadays , they'd be yelled at by other equally rude people. Donahue was ABSOLUTELY right to confront her at the end. Rand should be much more patient and calm.

  • @SuperOmnicron nope. Rand has a RIGHT to be impatient and condescending because she is better than everyone asking a question. By better I mean more intelligent and wise. That question was condescending. end of story. That stupid interviewer was trying to deflect the impoliteness of the question off of the stupid person to the intelligent person like all stupid people do because all stupid people attack intelligent people.. Its obvious..

  • @SHIBBYiPANDA ...She is not used to that format, and it showed. She didnt like criticism and reacted poorly in each instance. Being wise means addressing people in a respectful and gracious manner not by disbelief and rudeness. I remember Zbigniew Brzezinski behaved in the same manner when he was taken to task about his foreign policy. The question was not stated well, but the manner in which Ayn responded made her look worsel, and the audience showed it.

  • @SuperOmnicron whatever.. Maybe they were both wrong.. That audience was full of stupid and ignorant drama queens either way to be acting like they did.. They acted like it was the fucking jerry springer show with all their hooping and hollering..

  • @SHIBBYiPANDA ... I disagree. the audience was full of people that needed an honest appraisal and critique of her work. To dismiss them as drama queens denotes a "labeling" of classism, . They behaved in a manner of someone behaving rudely and responding rudely. It was HARDLY Jerry Springer. Rand died with one nurse attending her, and with little notice. Could she have been more receptive? Probably? In the 70s people were dissatisfied with status quo and it showed in their demeanor.

  • @robertchflynn Definitely. She was rude and was perfectly right to pull her up about it. Show some respect, you were lucky to get her on that damn show at all. 

  • @robertchflynn ....truly objective people let someone answer a question. "I will not answer anyone is impolite" "I am not the victim of hippies", Rand is far too provincial .... the public format isnt really her strength.

  • @SuperOmnicron  I don't agree with a lot of what she says but I think her style works for her. However, lets not forget that she's also just an old woman too. Getting a little indignant and grumpy as you age goes with the territory. She nailed that woman though...

  • @robertchflynn ..she did nail her...but it felt like different generations talking to one another. Her comments regarding arabs were deplorable. Again, she came from an era where there wasnt audience participation in questioning. Rand came off petty and arrogant (typical of Russian intellectuals). Dont return "implied rudeness" with OBVIOUS rudeness, which is why the audience booed. We just dont go for that in America.

  • The problem is that when a company or corporation is seen as a single person by the government then they will continue to get the assistance that goes against a truly capitalist idea.

  • I would hate to have an argument with this lady... her poor husband.

    What a great retort. You cannot counter wit like that.

  • lol @ old people.

  • this is irrelevant, but what a beautiful woman at 8:50.

  • @maplelander Wow! not irrelevant at all--what a beautiful shot of a beautiful woman!

  • In Europe the EU stopped Ryanair Airlines from buying Aer lingus airlines because if it allowed the buy-out Ryanair would have a monopoly. This was one area where government intervention stopped a monopoly from happening rather than creating it.

  • You know, fuck these stupid little pansies. The problem is not injustice, it's that whiners get heard.

  • @Cocteau120 ...precisely why were in a war with no end, Trillions in debt due to war, because of "real macho" people making decisions in cultures they dont understand, rather than taking care of their own country. The dollar is now on the verge of collapse. How ironic that Afghanistan was Russia's Vietnam, and we're repeating the same mistake (soon to be Pakistan). History TEACHES us NOTHING. Dont worry when the Fed deficit is too large to be financed and they start taking pensions you'll learn

  • @SuperOmnicron

    We fight wars like chumps. You bomb the shit out of the problem country and then it's over in a week. There's no need to make the whole thing as painful as it is.

  • @Cocteau120 ...Thats idiotic. Ask Nixon if it worked. It got him impeached (well, the burglary did, but dropping all that tonage on Cambodia didnt help). They want the wars to go on longer, dummy, that way the corporations, defense contractors and building contractors make more. Thats the silliest thing I ever heard. We dropped 2 atom bombs on Japan, and it got them the no. 2 economy in the world 4 decades later and still some of the best cars and tech on the planet.

  • @SuperOmnicron

    You're an absolute idiot. Just because the broken political system promotes an absurd approach to warfare does not make that the right approach. You're an absolute ignoramus.

  • @Cocteau120 , son Smedley Butler said "War is a Racket" since the first world war. If you dont realize war is a money making business for the nobility to create a absolute controlled world (stripped of nationalistic and regional boundaries and compliant to their agenda) .. I dont know what to tell you. "Every war is won before a single bullet is fired" DONT YOU GET IT?  Its a hustle. "absurd approach to warfare" wtf are you talking about,? Rulers create the enemy they send troops to fight.

  • @Cocteau120 Essentially, he is correct. You are speaking as if a correct political system would correctly address war strategy in a geopolitical context of "victory". That is in error , since drugs, oil, warfare and weapons have built and consolidated the power bases of all American and European dynasties. The arrogance and self-fancied superiority of such "logicians" as Rand enthrall a very childish, and self-delusional base of people.

  • @Cocteau120 , i would suggest you read the rise of Nazi germany via the financial elites of europe and wall street. It is a very critical, subjective analysis which would give you a better understanding how war is financed. You also might look at John Ruskin, who developed the theory of an expanded middle class which would labor on behalf ofthe aristocracy. "War" is a conventional theater , but its participants and outcomes are decided and created via thinktanks like Brookings Institute.

  • @Cocteau120 , despite the name calling. Omnicron is right. The Brookings Institute essentially is funded to produce studies that see crises coming years in advance. These are premeditated and meticulously planned conflicts to trigger a premeditated, meticulously planned solution to advance Brookings' corporate supporters. ex "Which Path to Persia" was one policy study, another was "The Real Military Options in Libya". notable corporate support? Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Exxon.

  • This display has convinced me more than anything that Ayn Rand was a petty, ignorant idiot.

  • She is so far above every one else in the room that they really don't understand her demand to be treated politely. The question was presented in a rude manner.

  • @chairde ...thats the problem...people "far above" cant relate, communicate or TOLERATE people BELOW. But dont worry. Justice is coming for EVERYONE, very soon. No one will escape . People "far above" everyone set this insane banking bailout, multiple war front, and all the Ayn Rand philosphosing and grandiose comments are just rhetoric.

  • @SuperOmnicron So are you one of those end of times people? You said that justice is coming for everyone.

  • @chairde , no Im one of those "the debt is at 14 trillion and we wont be able to pay it and the dollar will collapse" people. When it crashes again, Im one of those "import prices will sky rocket" people. "Im one of those Government will curb hyper inflation with fixed prices" people. Has nothing to do with end of times. its END OF AN EMPIRE. One that over-reached its grasp attempting to fight too many wars on too many fronts.

  • @SuperOmnicron Well then let me tell you that I have been through many recessions in my life. Each and every time the doomsayers predicted the end of my country. Each and every time the nation returned better for the experience. Recessions get rid of the fat and waste in the economy. It is a natural cycle that is needed. The sky is not falling.

  • @chairde

    Actually, it is. 15% of the U.S. population is on food stamps, underemployment/unemployment is over 15%, 35% of all American wages are some form of welfare, the national deficit for fiscal year 2011 is a 57% overextension of the revenues, the national debt is over 100% of GDP, interest rates are low and will soon rise, which will cause the interest payments to skyrocket. Inflationary pressures will force the Fed to raise interest rates, at which point the government will have to cut

  • @Soupflakez

    The government will either have to cut spending, or have the Fed buy 100% of newly issued bonds (which is money-printing) in order to finance its deficits. This will cause hyperinflation. If the government cuts spending, there'll be riots and civil unrest since millions upon millions of Americans depend, directly, on welfare handouts.

  • @Soupflakez "I don't blame Rand for refusing to answer the woman's question given the insulting presuppositions. Rand wouldn't drink from a poisoned well. Why should she? Are you saying all "true" intellectuals can stomach people spitting in their faces? That's probably true, but not of Rand. Rand responded in an appropriate manner given the circumstances--even going so far as to say she would answer the question if someone wished to ask it in a polite way. " -Rand isnt used to a live audience.

  • @SuperOmnicron

    That's the best you can come up with? She isn't used to a live audience? She did extraordinarily well, even though all the erroneous statements and Donahue cutting her off constantly. In any case, her not being used to a live audience does not, in any way, pertain to if what the woman said, and how she said it, was wrong--nor does it pertain to if Rand's reaction to said woman was wrong.

  • @Soupflakez , I think she is accustomed to academia. When her questios can be put in logical terms. Im more educated now, shouldve been Im more enlightened now . Enlightenment can be put as an argument against conflicts which arise when people each pursue their own ends vs. whats best for each individual . The lady came off as rude, but did she "spit" in her face. She's too old to be so childish. Wouldnt someone mature ignore it. The lady didnt cuss, yet Rand

  • @Soupflakez p2 and "half-wit"....she just came off bad. Its ok, she probably deserved it, but dont we as a SPEICES deserve better? To get beyond some bad mannered comment for the good of the "enlightenment" of others? This is a public forum, not an academic one. "How dare she challenge an intellectual giant like Rand?" because she is just another person at the end of the day. People dont always agree, but the discussion, and resolution of our points drive us. Which is why you replied, right?

  • @SuperOmnicron

    I responded because you've somehow come under the impression that Rand was acting badly, as if she were to sanction that woman's overt poisoning of the well. You are wrong in this case. Rand responded appropriately. If Rand had went so far as to go on a tirade and begin cussing, then you may have had a case; however, not with this. Rand simply refused to answer the question given the context presented, and even offered to answer if someone asked politely.

  • @Soupflakez 。。 Well, she appeared thin skinned, but its understandable. SEVERAL people with divergent opinions have appeared on that show, and have put up with somewhat rude comments, and demonstrated calm, empathy and wisdom. As said before, she is from the one-to-one style of interview. She responded favorably when she received applause. As you say, she responded appropriately, not necessarily wisely. She is still an iconic figure, though.

  • @chairde , I believe Soupflakez pretty much proved my point. Default is the end of a natural cycle that has been missing mass production and employment ... hence a jobless recovery.

  • "...the system is set up so that you can only get an education if your WILLING to pay for it..." I would only amend that capitalized word to: ABLE....and this statement (made by a female audience member) is still "the case" today.

  • Funny people so concerned about ITT GM Exxon Mobil......now look at them they havent overruned the world.....

  • what i understand about the conflict is that ayn rand, being very intellectual, will not accept people coming with the goal of attacking her point of view. Which is only appropriate. You should ask questions and LEARN. BE LEGITIMATELY INTERESTED, don't ask and attack the person you're questioning, because it means you do not want to learn. which is exactly what that lady did. If THAT's a smart lady... I'm sorry for the females in that time being misrepresented there.