Why Unregulated Capitalism Is Moral 2 - Ayn Rand Institute

[anlzd1]

but it destroys the environment and results in some people earning a huge amount while others earn hardly anything.

[jrmsher33]

So I can pimp your 16 year old daughter out, right? Ayn Rand believed in legalizing prostitution and since government and economics are independent under your system it would be a crime to forbid me to. I'd pay her more than Walmart would pay their prostitutes. Of course, I would be living in a home I rented from Walmart since there are no monopoly laws so they'd probably kick me out of there because competition isn't in their best interest and whatever is in a corps. best interest is right. no?

[Brutal90Death]

@jrmsher33

That would be violating her individual rights... you FAIL

[keiv2004]

@jrmsher33 You just don't get it, right? You start your argument by forcing people!

[nobodady1]

Great lecture, especially regarding artificiality of interest rates inviting the frenzy and later collapse, but the speaker is misinformed about CRA credits and subprime products. Most of the failing subprime mortgage products were not under the purview of CRA, and were created and chopped up following the relaxation of certain regulations.

[PureAdrenaline97]

Peter Schiff/Yaron Brook 2012!!!???!!!

[greenfury87]

Right off the bat, the first sentence, is wrong. We have a LOT of market activity, and a LITTLE regulation. Its the other way around.

[pr0gm3r]

Government does not pass law without the people behind it.

The Elite are behind the government, which they support Capitalism to exploit the poor and slave them.

[Bigturns33]

That makes no sense. How many time to political figures run on a certain important issue and then the people elect them and they do nothing and infact some do a 180 on there view. Republicans even now speak about free market and getting government out of peoples lives and people elect them and they make even more government! So recently the trend is clear that big government has been the problem. They are not helping big business because they are being taxed to shit.

[LeifRunenritzer]

Making folks dependent on the government is the surer means to bring about slavery.

Maybe i should suffer that Michael Moore movie so i can understand what folks mean by "capitalism".

[Pseudologic]

Do you grow all of your own food or buy it in a grocery store? If you depend on grocery store then that is a kind of slavery. Did you make your own computer or did you buy it? You're dependent on high tech companies.

[LeifRunenritzer]

@Pseudologic I call that division of labor, not slavery. In a free market, if a particular business is taking advantage of the consumer, he can patronize a competitor, or become a competitor, or the case of computers, he can do without one. Introduce government interference on behalf of a business, and he now is dependent on that particular business if it provides something he can't practically do without. Introduce government ownership of an essential, and it owns that much more of his life.

[Pseudologic]

You can call blue cheese anything you want, it still stinks. Also, in certain industries it's not easy to switch to a competitor, sometimes monopoly or oligopoly occurs and the consumer has no choice. Government ownership of major infrastructure and control how that infrastructure is used if it is leased is necessary to prevent unavoidable abuses by a monopoly/oligopoly.

[LeifRunenritzer]

@Pseudologic Government can take our money by force, but, if, say, a utility company violates consumer sovereignty, folks will use it less and can even organize to boycott it (not cold turkey; leave the fridge on, or whatever) and appeal to other providers to come in. Like you say, it's not easy, but it's harder to resist a powerful government, though inefficient and sometimes unsustainable it can be. On that note, the inefficiency of state ownership could be more costly, just not directly so.

[Pseudologic]

@LeifRunenritzer Most utility companies are monopolies or oligopolies. Therefore you don't have a choice you can't switch. Then again, how does an average Joe knows hes being gouged? He doesn't have the skills or energy to compare his bill and know if he's being gouged. People are not always rational in economical sense, so it's up to government to set up oversight agencies that monitor abuses by monopolies and oligopolies. And in case of HMOs that's exactly what's happening.

[ronpaul101789]

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico­volcanoconiosis

[vafirefighter91]

These lectures should be broadcast in primetime so the average uninformed american can be taught what is really going on and how the system is supposed to work.

[ronpaul101789]

That would be awesome. However, do you really think they would broadcast this?

[MishuTaste]

What's the likelihood that the average, uninformed American would watch this speech instead of American Idol, CSI, and The Hills?

[lashkaretoiba]

I'd say the adds are about as good as a crackhead entering a detox center.

[davedolan]

basspig: housing, as in a roof over your head, is an essential; however, OWNING a house is not. You can fulfill your basic needs for housing without owning a mortgage. especially one you can't afford.

[basspig]

Without the right to own property, man has no true freedom. So yes, owning your own home, should you choose to be secure in your person and possessions, is essential to freedom. In an apartment, you can be evicted should you become unemployed or face difficult times. That worry is age-inducing and detrimental to health and well being. Home ownership without threat of loss due to taxes is the solution to this threat to life and health. Therefore, I regard it as an essential right.

[Pseudologic]

Except noone owns a home, their bank does and even if the bank owns only 1% of the house, it has a right to sell it for 30 cents on a dollar if you default on payments.

[basspig]

@Pseudologic Not everyone has a mortgage. I bought my land for cash 44 years ago and I built the house from recycled lumber from demolition sites. I never had a mortgage until I fell behind on taxes and had to get a loan to stop a tax foreclosure. The taxes had reached the purchase price of my property by 1992. The problem was that I found I did not own my land, that I was merely renting it from the town.

[Pseudologic]

@basspig

Maybe it's high time you realized that 2010 isn't 1966. Rules have changed or sometimes have been thrown out of the window if it's regulatory rules. Most people now who want to buy a house must take a mortgage. Thanks to Reagan the corporations had tax cuts and the common people got tax increases and decreasing real wages. All essential services must be government-supplied for democracy to survive.

[JordanViewer]

@Pseudologic

your name is fitting. democracy is the majority violently asserting ownership over the individual. That is slavery, not buying food from a grocery store.

[Pseudologic]

@JordanViewer Then I assume you must live in Somalia, that libertarian heaven with no democracy, no government and plenty of guns?

[basspig]

Housing may be a commodity, but this is one more reason why property taxation is fundamentally immoral and destructive to families, as it forces people who could afford a home at one time to give up that home and be forced into rentals or trailer parks, or worse, homeless shelters.

[basspig]

When interest rates were low and home prices went up, my property taxes went way up. Like 50% in just four years.

The problem with the housing market is that people have this notion that houses are like stocks to be traded. The problem is a house is a shelter, and, like food, a baseline essential that should not be speculated and taxed at the speculated rate.

[Bigturns33]

THe housing market deals with property rights. I personally believe that the lender should technically pay the taxes on the land not you. WHen your taxed for your property its literally like you renting it. Even when you pay your lender off your still taxed by the state for your property which you suposivly own, its insane.

[basspig]

That's a muddy area that I would have to research the ethical status of, but I certainly agree that property taxes are repugnant to the concept of property ownership!

[guyusj]

Great point about the artificially low interest rates.

[soitoldhimno]

I'm really impressed that he's doing this whole lecture from memory.

[crowbarofdeath]

I like to think this is impromptu. Dr. Brook knows his stuff.

[soitoldhimno]

Right...."memory" was the wrong term, I didn't mean to say that he memorized the lecture. Thanks for the correction.

[crowbarofdeath]

I wasn't correcting you at all. I have no idea whether he memorized it or not. I'm just saying that it would be awesome if it wasn't.

[soitoldhimno]

Well watching him speak it does appear to be more "impromptu" rather than "memorized."

[josephfwalker]

I'm loving this talk. Can't wait for the rest.