Please, for the good of yourself (primarily), and the good of various individuals who comprise this country (secondarily), watch Yaron Answers videos on Youtube. Try to dispute him point by point. None of this, he's part of a conspiracy nonsense, or, he just doesn't understand nonsense, or he has the mind of a kindergartner nonsense. Tell me exactly why his perception is wrong, why, if given his premises, he would be wrong, or why, based on reason, his premises are flawed. Do you dispute, for instance, that you should not give a part of yourself to bad people (Do You support non-coercive altruism?)? Or, do you think that it is bad to offer better products for lower prices than your competitors (Why is Walmart so hated?)? Or that some group of people have the right to tell others that the world is overpopulated?
Of course, if you don't watch Yaron Brook, but you read Ayn Rand, even better, but please, please think for yourselves and don't sell yourself, and a large number of others, short by some absolutely bankrupt and irrational policies.
I don't mean to be an expert on Ayn Rand. My ideas are not completely original, but are based on Ayn Rand's fiction and non-fiction, as well as the works of Leonard Peikoff, Yaron Brook, and other Objectivist scholars. In fact, I have a million things to learn myself. However, I think this country has been sold out by a number of horrendous policies that have enslaved the population. By people's individual faults, they allow intellectual con artists to convince them to believe all sorts of destructive ideas, and let the system continue by default. It is a situation where government has grown so ungodly massive and intrusive that people, with good reason, have given up on any attempt to untangle the mess.
The problem with our political discussions is that no one is speaking in terms of essentials anymore. All we have are debates on how to fix laws that should not exist in the first place. In 1913, congress passed laws creating the Federal Reserve and the IRS, and somehow convinced states to vote for the heinous 16th Amendment. That is a turning point in history. Why does the government have the right to take a percentage of someone's hard-earned money? We can go back even further to the first Anti-Trust law, in 1890, or other policies enacted in the 1870s. Once we accept the premises that these are legitimate government functions, why even bother debating issues? It's only a matter of time before every man is a slave to government.
The simple truth is that there are three basic realms which are appropriate for government: police, defense, and court systems. The point is that people need to be free to be as rational as possible, but rationality ends where coercion begins. So, the function of government is to prevent individuals from coercing other people. Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. In these three basic elements, the government should fund and run the system to the deepest extent of its funding, wherewithal, and zeal as humanly possible. All other functions of government should be eliminated. Instead of regulation, we need to establish clear property rights to everything, and then police the system as much as humanly possible, based on rational laws. Instead of tort reform, we need a fully-functioning civil justice system. Instead of allowing crony capitalists to get away with their crimes, we need to punish them fully and appropriately. Instead of several half-baked overseas campaigns, if a goal, like eliminating ISIS, is a legitimate one, (necessary to maintain safety and passes the cost-benefit test in all particulars) we need to pursue that to the best of our abilities. Remember the adage, anything worth doing is worth doing well? None of the discussion of rights, leniency, or Islam not being the problem will do. Instead of spending resources rounding up drug dealers and prostitutes, we need to legalize all victimless crimes and put the police to work preventing the harm that will come of malam-in-se crime, including: murder, property theft, white-collar crime, gangsterism, etc.
Capitalism is NOT good because it works, it is good because it is moral for ALL people to have complete freedom to engage in productive work of his choosing, to the greatest extent possible. Even if some statistical study suggests that by pooling resources, certain goals can be better handled, that does not mean that coercion is the means to do so. Even in the best of circumstances, we need to completely reverse the trend, of first thinking that benevolent leaders or the people can solve a problem better than an individual can for himself. That is nonsense. We need to be skeptical of any such claim and err on the side of the individual. If you think government needs to pilfer money in the form of taxes to accomplish any of these goals, check your premises. Would that be true if government were true to the founding principles? Would that be true if government were rational, protected property rights, and allowed us to flourish? There are also ways smart people can invent to fund government, by persuading people to do so, or selling things like lottery tickets.
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