 Economic Problems of Charity
by Joseph Rowlands
One of the unintended benefits of a free market is the way the price system creates efficiency in the production of goods and services. Businesses seek to gain profits, and they can do so only if they can sell a product for more than it cost to produce. Products that can't sell for more than the cost will be disconti... (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 19, 2012 |
Workplace Freedom and Right to Work Laws
by Edward W. Younkins
On Tuesday December 11, 2012 Michigan, the birthplace of the nation’s organized labor movement, became the country’s 24th right-to-work state. This short excerpt from pages 81-83 of my 2002 book, Capitalism and Commerce, explains the propriety of right-to-work laws. Before the Norris-La Guardia and National Labo... (Read more...)
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Machan’s Archives: A Note on Socialism as Elitism
by Tibor R. Machan
Since ancient times some people have considered the market place an unruly forum in which to determine whose work and what commodities are worth how much. With Marxism this view acquired a pseudo-scientific status. The complaint that when free individuals and groups exchange goods and services some will get more for their contributions than they deserve reaches the level of a total ideology. (Read more...)
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Prudence versus Greed
by Tibor R. Machan
Most people mean by greed an “excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions.” As to prudence, it is the quality of being cautious with regard to practical matters and especially in regard for one's own economic interests, being careful in the management of resources, heeding economy and being frugal. (Read more...)
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Constitutional Anomalies
by Tibor R. Machan
As a lay student of the law, it has always struck me odd that in the U. S. system the First Amendment to the constitution exempts the ministry and journalism from government regulation while it appears to accept the regulation by all levels of government of numerous professions and enterprises. In very general terms, this clearly amounts to a kind of unjust discrimination. (Read more...)
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Obama and Ayn Rand
by Tibor R. Machan
Never mind for now that Obama misrepresents Rand idea of ethical egoism--she never advocated “only thinking about ourselves.” And the pursuit of one’s own happiness does take a prominent position at least among the universal, unalienable rights everyone has. Just how sloppy the thinking is that’s revealed in Mr. Obama’s answer can be appreciated from considering a few facts that Mr. Obama ought to have found out before he gave chose to chime in on Rand. (Read more...)
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American Statism
by Tibor R. Machan
The individualist idea rest on the recognition of the fact that human beings have the capacity to govern themselves, to think for themselves and act from their thinking. Of course, individualism doesn’t contradict the plain fact that we all draw on advice and information we receive from other people, starting with members of our family. But individualist have learned that such learning must itself be initiated by human agents who will draw on it as fuel for their living. Individualism also affirms the capacity we have for free choice. (Read more...)
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Society as an Organic Body
by Tibor R. Machan
When you have an organic body you are looking out for, if some part of this body is faltering, another part may need to be called upon or sacrificed so as to help mend it. Just as with human beings, sometime a part of their bodies are utilized to fix another part, so with humanity--or society, if that is all you have available to manipulate. (Read more...)
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How Not to Treat Ideas
by Tibor R. Machan
The philosophical school I consider most sensible sees ideas as the means by which human beings gain understanding of reality. Ideas are what helps us navigate reality so we can live successfully. Which is why so much effort has been spent on developing, criticizing and analyzing ideas throughout human history, especially in the academy, not just in the sciences but in matters of public concern. (Read more...)
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Thursday
September 20, 2012 |
Elementary Dear Obama
by Tibor R. Machan
Ok, so none of us creates or produces anything ex nihilo. What, if anything, follows from this? Our teeth weren’t made by us, nor our hair or nose or eyes. Yet we often benefit because of these. Our beautiful eyes may impress someone and may even land us a movie contract. We may be very tall and do well at basketball in consequence. A few of us may have talents others would kill for! (Read more...)
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Tuesday
September 11, 2012 |
Dworkin’s Plain Statism
by Tibor R. Machan
As is usually the case, The New York Review of Books gives ample room to some Leftist jurists, like Professors David Cole or Ronald Dworkin, to provide the politically correct commentary on a major ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court. And, so unsurprisingly, Professor Dworkin penned such a piece in the magazine’s August 16, 2012, issue. It is a beauty of statist jurisprudence arguing that all in all the Roberts Court’s recent decision to give President Obama’s signature health care program a pass was a welcome thing from the Left’s perspective. (Others, like Professor Randy Barnett, have made arguments from the libertarian side, holding that the ruling isn't so bad for those who want to advance the cause of human liberty. See the interview with Professor Barnett in Reason, October 2012.) (Read more...)
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How Can Obama Not Turn Our Backs on Failing Businesses?
by Tibor R. Machan
Like a monarch, Mr. Obama sees the country’s wealth to be his wealth. He has no respect for private property rights--all property belongs, as argued by his favorite political philosophers Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel (in their book The Myth of Ownership), to the country and is not the property of the citizens of the country! (Read more...)
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Another Attempt to Bluff Us All
by Tibor R. Machan
Those aspiring to manage our lives, to take it over and run it according to their vision, never tire of trying to bluff us into letting down our guards. Now come Robert and Edward Skidelsky, in a book titled How Much is Enough? (Allen Lane, 2012), claiming that there’s just too much capitalism afoot and this must be contained. I assume by them and their pals. They urge us to re-examine economic growth “as an end in itself,” without any connection to “what a good life might look like.” (Read more...)
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When you've lost yourself..
by William Anthony Bardel
The musings of someone who has lost themself and wishes to share the experiece with others of like minds. The lack of desire is a disease that corrupts the soul and is, in my opinion, death among the living. A living zombie tries to philosophize his way out of stasis, and jolt self-motivation through the fundamentals of Ayn Rand's way of thinking. In this way he searches for purpose and fulfiulliment. Other writings follow, hoping to utlilize what he has learned of Ayn Rand's philosophy and how it must apply. (Read more...)
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Sometimes a Great Notion: The Story of a Family Who Would Never Give an Inch
by Edward W. Younkins
Ken Kesey’s novel, Sometimes a Great Notion (1964), is a complex and integrated historical background and relationship study of the Stamper family, a prideful logging clan living in Wakonda, Oregon. This big story involves a man, his family, a town, the country, a period of time, and the effects of time. All of the ele... (Read more...)
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What’s the Fuss About those Uniforms?
by Tibor R. Machan
Senator Reid was sounding like the United States of America is at war with any nation in which there are firms that produce commodities that fulfill the needs of companies producing goods and services for American consumers. Next Senator Reid will call for declaring war on any country that doesn’t fall in line with his standards of acceptable trading partnership. (Read more...)
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On Insider Trading
by Merlin Jetton
I will argue that insider trading is a diminution of property rights for some (most) shareholders. (Read more...)
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Did Rubio’s Parents Do Right?
by Tibor R. Machan
Let me tell you right away that when you live in a hopelessly defunct country, it makes little difference whether you are oppressed or impoverished. Both can kill you good, and both are mostly the result of how the country is being run by the politicians who have taken it over. (Read more...)
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Jobs From Forced Charity--the Socialist way.
by Tibor R. Machan
It appears, based on the economic philosophy he has been outlining in recent weeks, that President Obama believes that jobs based on economic transactions, exchanges, trade, and so forth, do not matter, have no significance. This has a very serious foundation, to which I will turn later in this short discussion. (Read more...)
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Flourishing and Happiness in a Nutshell
by Edward W. Younkins
By integrating features found in the writings of Aristotle, Austrian economists, Ayn Rand, and a number of contemporary thinkers, we have the potential to develop a powerful, reality-based argument for a free society in which individuals have the opportunity to flourish and to be happy. Modern contributors to this appr... (Read more...)
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Machan's Archives: Genuine Military Defense Anyone? (updated)
by Tibor R. Machan
As much as one may object to Iran's government’s efforts to build atomic weapons, the American government isn’t supposed to be some kind of meta-police that embarks upon restraining such governments! Certainly spending American taxpayers’ funds on conducting military actions against Iran would be going way beyond the proper military role of the American government, which is to protect its citizen’s freedom from domestic and foreign criminals. (Read more...)
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Seattle, America’s Europe?
by Tibor R. Machan
On a recent trip to Seattle, which I visit on and off quite a lot, I found the place to have just the kind of feel I have experienced in Stockholm and Oslo and in cities, big and small, throughout Austria and Switzerland. (Read more...)
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Creation of an Ethical Business: The Implementation of Virtuous Behavior and Shared Values and Goals
by Jessica L. Kuryn
In today’s competitive business environment, a growing number of firms will do almost anything to gain sales and customers, as well as to increase profits. For some of these firms, playing by the rules doesn’t achieve the results they are after. Firms have the choice to act ethically or unethically. While misguided ... (Read more...)
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Objectivist Virtue Ethics in Business
by Edward W. Younkins
Virtuous actions can lead to the achievement of values. When one’s context is reduced to business, virtue theory contends that pursuing virtuous principles, strategies, and actions can result in firms realizing their values including their mission, purpose, profit potential, and other goals. Virtuous employees tend to ... (Read more...)
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Henry Hazlitt's Time Will Run Back: A Tale of the Reinvention of Capitalism
by Edward W. Younkins
Henry Hazlitt’s novel, Time will Run Back, was originally published in 1951 as The Great Idea. It teaches that if capitalism did not exist, then it would be necessary to invent it. It makes the case that the discovery of capitalism is one of the greatest triumphs of the human mind. In his nonfiction works Hazlitt is a ... (Read more...)
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