Make America Great Again!

[metis]

And for you Bernie supporters I give you Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged" to improve your education

Well, before sticking your tongue out, you maybe should have checked first with Alan Greenspan and asked him how his Ayn Rand paradigm worked out for him and for our country.

 

[esmith]

Well, before sticking your tongue out, you maybe should have checked first with Alan Greenspan and asked him how his Ayn Rand paradigm worked out for him and for our country.

I do believe that "Atlas Shrugged" is a work of fiction that the initial premises have not arisen as of yet. Or is it that you see the country headed in that direction? Have you ever read the book?

 

[metis]

I do believe that "Atlas Shrugged" is a work of fiction that the initial premises have not arisen as of yet. Or is it that you see the country headed in that direction? Have you ever read the book?

I read one of Rand's books back when doing my undergrad work back in the mid '60's, but I can't recall which it was. What I do recall was that I wasn't impressed, and I was even a Republican back then. If you give me a synopsis on that and "The Fountainhead", maybe that's jar my memory back that far.

By chance did you hear or read Greenspan's comments on this when giving testimony? I was watching the proceedings on CSpan and was stunned when he talked about his errors on this. But he owed up to it, much to his credit.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Donald Trump wants to "Make America great again!" This assumes that America was once great, but has lost its greatness; that America has deteriorated.

I hear similar things from the other presidential hopefuls.

What I'm wondering is:
When was this period of greatness that we need to recreate?
What economic, domestic and foreign policies were in place during this period of greatness?
How did it deteriorate?
And what features constitute greatness, anyway?

Discuss.

Ah.... Tongue in cheek........


Lets see.......Perhaps it was the 40s and50s where everything was rigged to benefit themselves like the social security ponzi scheme.

Jobs at the plant where you made enough money so the wife can stay at home full time with the kids and cook you supper.

Also noteworthy is a full lifetime pension provided along with your retirement benefits.

White picket fences with the Cleavers as next door neighbors.

Full service diners where the girls on rollerskates places a tray on your door, takes your order, and rollerskates back with your food.

Full service stations where they pump your gas, check your oil, and gives you your change right from his belt.

Cheap bowling games.

Moose lodge.

Just watch Nickelodeon.

 

[Sunstone]

And for you Bernie supporters I give you Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged" to improve your education

I read Atlas Shrugged when I was in high school. I thought it made a lot of sense when I was 15, so I can understand today how it would appeal to an under-educated mind.

 

[esmith]

I read Atlas Shrugged when I was in high school. I thought it made a lot of sense when I was 15, so I can understand today how it would appeal to an under-educated mind.

are you implying that I have a "under-educated" mind? However, I can see how there are those that do not understand the underlying message in the story.

 

[Sunstone]

are you implying that I have a "under-educated" mind?

Not you specifically, Esmith. I don't know enough about you to have an opinion about that. But most Randians that I know well enough to have an honest opinion about their education, both formal and informal education, seem to lack depth in certain key areas. For instance, they most frequently lack the knowledge to seriously question Rand's notions of human nature. They wouldn't really know where to begin even if they actually wanted to question her notions of human nature. That's significant because Rand's Utopian vision is based on her understanding -- or, rather, her lack of understanding -- of human nature. She's essentially a pre-scientific thinker when it comes to her understanding of humans.

 

[Robert H Biggadike]

I do believe that "Atlas Shrugged" is a work of fiction that the initial premises have not arisen as of yet. Or is it that you see the country headed in that direction? Have you ever read the book?

"Atlas Shrugged" is a work of fiction but it delivers an important moral message. I personally prefer "The Virtue of Selfishness" by Ayn Rabd. It delivers a great moral message directly rather than through fiction.

 

[Robert H Biggadike]

Not you specifically, Esmith. I don't know enough about you to have an opinion about that. But most Randians that I know well enough to have an honest opinion about their education, both formal and informal education, seem to lack depth in certain key areas. For instance, they most frequently lack the knowledge to seriously question Rand's notions of human nature. They wouldn't really know where to begin even if they actually wanted to question her notions of human nature. That's significant because Rand's Utopian vision is based on her understanding -- or, rather, her lack of understanding -- of human nature. She's essentially a pre-scientific thinker when it comes to her understanding of humans.

The important thing to know about human nature is that capitalism works. When free trade takes place between adults both parties benefit. You don't need to know anything in a psychology book so long as you understand that capitalism is a necessary but not sufficient condition for human freedom as pointed out by Milton Friedman.

 

[metis]

The important thing to know about human nature is that capitalism works. When free trade takes place between adults both parties benefit. You don't need to know anything in a psychology book so long as you understand that capitalism is a necessary but not sufficient condition for human freedom as pointed out by Milton Friedman.

Laissez faire capitalism proved to be so reckless so as to create monstrous problems that every single nation on Earth either chose not to try it, and those that did eventually abandoned it. Today, all "capitalist" nations are in reality variations of what is referred to as a "mixed economy" that includes varying degrees of socialism.