@Eliezer: what ‘evil’ person has ever admitted to being ‘evil’? I’m not talking about the petty thief who is sorry for his actions, but the bin ladens or stalins of the world who are convinced that the end justify their means and they are really doing good for their people/country/future/god/whatever.
Rand’s objectivism and capitalism are criticized by people who reflexively see ‘selfish’ and equate that with greed and all the problems with capitalism. But those critics are delusional or they just don’t understand human nature and our built-in modules for self-interest. And what altruism we do have is reciprocal, that doesn’t make it any less ‘good’, it just makes it a ‘good’ form of self-interested behavior that benefits both or many parties and allows for societies instead of small warring bands.
Socialism is bad because it doesn’t work well—capitalism is bad because it works too well. Socialism goes against our natural instincts, capitalism in its unregulated form amplifies those natural instincts to unsustainable levels. And truly, all our economies in this world are mixed economies anyway, so that should tell you something about a ‘one true way’.
Again referring to my previous post, I think most of the problems are not capitalistic ideals, but the money systems that warp those ideals. Money is important, because bartering doesn’t scale and is inefficient, and lacking a post-scarcity reality where everything is abundant, money will not go away. But in its current form it is far from optimal for maximum friendliness for all.
@Eliezer: what ‘evil’ person has ever admitted to being ‘evil’? I’m not talking about the petty thief who is sorry for his actions, but the bin ladens or stalins of the world who are convinced that the end justify their means and they are really doing good for their people/country/future/god/whatever.
Rand’s objectivism and capitalism are criticized by people who reflexively see ‘selfish’ and equate that with greed and all the problems with capitalism. But those critics are delusional or they just don’t understand human nature and our built-in modules for self-interest. And what altruism we do have is reciprocal, that doesn’t make it any less ‘good’, it just makes it a ‘good’ form of self-interested behavior that benefits both or many parties and allows for societies instead of small warring bands.
Socialism is bad because it doesn’t work well—capitalism is bad because it works too well. Socialism goes against our natural instincts, capitalism in its unregulated form amplifies those natural instincts to unsustainable levels. And truly, all our economies in this world are mixed economies anyway, so that should tell you something about a ‘one true way’.
Again referring to my previous post, I think most of the problems are not capitalistic ideals, but the money systems that warp those ideals. Money is important, because bartering doesn’t scale and is inefficient, and lacking a post-scarcity reality where everything is abundant, money will not go away. But in its current form it is far from optimal for maximum friendliness for all.