Yaron Brook on Capitalism, Question 9 - Ayn Rand Institute

http://www.aynrand.org

Weren't the convicted Enron executives acting in their own rational self-interest? Isn't it true that one person's rational self-interest is going to conflict with another person's rational self-interest, leading inevitably to the use of force? These questions are from the Q-&-A period of a lecture titled "Why Unregulated (Laissez-Faire) Capitalism Is the Only Moral Social System," delivered at the University of California, Irvine on April 14, 2008.

Yaron Brook is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Yaron
• Brook
• Ayn
• Rand
• Institute
• ethics
• Capitalism
• WorldCom
• rational
• self-interest
• selfish
• Enron
• egoism
• morality
• altruism

[qtronman]

Excellent incorporation of altruism and egoism at the end there: "I don't think I have to take care of you," exactly.

[PaulMcKeever]

2. Values obtained viciously may relieve one of ones pain, but they do not provide one with happiness. The happiness comes not from the value alone, but from the virtuous achievement of it.

Do not infer from my comment, however, that I disagree with Yaron's points. I do not.

Cheers,

Paul

[dantean]

You can't really be against lying, stealing and cheating without coming to the conclusion that the U.S. was neither unpopulated nor unutilized when "America" was declared and the indigenous population "resettled" at gunpoint. Claiming to be for liberty without force is rationalizing for a state of affairs (i.e., present-day property relations) that are precisely the result of force. Argue for the objective morality or ethics of what we have now, but force is how we got here and YOU favor it.

[Amerifacts]

I think that rationally self-interested individuals share the same values, but may differ in opinion on to how apply those values.

[lashkaretoiba]

How does he not know about ENRON?

[Bigturns33]

Because you have a strong philosphy about something does not make it a religion. Theism is a belief in some god. Ya some libertarians believe in some kind of a god. I am an objectivist and dont believe in a god but i hold to a philosphy that is without belief in a god. Because you believe in something strongly does not make it religion. Thats flawed logic. Religion deals with theism. Plain and simple. You believe somthing because you believe a deity wants you to believe such a way.

[hapspir]

"Most libertarians believe in a strong state law. With a very strong and disturbing bias toward private property rather than life."

Then could you please explain what you meant by this? I don't want to be a moron.

[jpbalkenende]

I never said laws should protect life instead of property you fucking moron.

[hapspir]

I wasn't joking. The only reason that a person could possibly wish to weaken or abolish property rights is to take the property of others against their will. I don't know what you meant when you said that laws should protect life instead of property, but I'm telling you that each person's life IS their property. To deny this is to claim that a person's life is the property of others. A person who doesn't own his own life is a slave. I know that's not what you want to be.

[jpbalkenende]

@hapspir

A straw man is the device of choice of an intellectual vacuum like yourself.

[hapspir]

If you think that private property is the opposite of life then I suppose you will continue to believe that you have a claim upon the property of your neighbors. What will you do when your neighbors become too poor to support you?

[jpbalkenende]

Most libertarians believe in a strong state law. With a very strong and disturbing bias toward private property rather than life. All they have to back these ideals up are either inherent 'rights' that they think to be self evident or god given rights. What's also religious about libertarianism is how it is faith based since libertarianism has never proven an ounce of it's worth (and won't get any chances to any time soon). Modern economics also disregard a great deal of libertarian dogma.