I didn't see it. Not in my viewing area, but had a conversation with a fellow ociffer who also expressed a desire to see it.
You see, having read the book, once, a long time ago, I appreciate Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophy as the perfect counterpoint to Marx.
But just as I know from history that following Marx leads to suffering. I also know that following Rand leads to large scale economic growth and inevitable corruption (humans are corrupt, Rand never dealt with this and simply washed the criminal element into the parasites). Unfortunately we can see that the free market without effective restrictions on immoral behavior leads to Enron, Worldcom, etc.
Because the fly in the ointment of Rand's philosophy is her stance that all effort or labor is in essence moral. As any criminal can tell you, morality has nothing to do with their efforts.
I think Cage The Elephant's "Ain't no rest for the Wicked" is an appropriate soundtrack for this post...
About Me
- AM
- Raised by conservative Christian parents, enlisted in the Army at 18, used the GI Bill to finish college, and I'm back in the Army. Along the way I've encountered a huge cast of characters, some I got into trouble with, some that passed on skills that have helped me on my life journey.
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5 comments:
Even if you disagree with the condensation and editing, the storyline is masterfully preserved, the acting is a cut above, and it fits unnervingly into our times...maybe too well!
It's why our founding fathers (Franklin?) said our constitution would work for a just and moral people but was wholly unsuitable for any other kind.
It's why corruption is rampant in other nominally "free market" (there are none on earth I'm aware of) societies. See, for example, almost all of Latin America.
An argument could be made, however, that those two examples, as well as others that could be given, were the result not of free markets but of the bastardized mixed market system we have in America.
To say Enron and Worldcom happened in and because of a free market is analogous to saying that you see more iced drinks in the summer because heat makes ice.
Nearly every economic disaster or difficulty in this country has come not because of a free market but rather because of the lack of one. This "crony capitalism", where politicians are in bed with business is to blame as well.
The market does not fail; man fails in his attempts to control everything.
My $.02.
AP
AP, I appreciate what you say, and I don't disagree with you. However Enron and Worlcom happened because of human greed. People went to jail for breaking the law. In a completely free market there is no such thing as "fraud" and it is truly "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware) and no one would have gone to jail for Enron or Worldcom.
Unfortunately, business runs on contracts. And contracts means contract law. And contract law means there have to be things like "fraud" and "regulations". Hence no truly free market.
But even in the most primitive of societies there is acknowledged moral and ethical behavior. Such as Confucius who noted that his ethical behavior as a merchant brought him more customers than those who used false weights. The Bible is full of ethical teachings on honesty. You can't have a market without someone trying to cheat someone else, it is as old as humanity and human nature does not change.
Therefore you cannot have a "truly free" market (at least not one that humans happen to be a part of) the best you can do is to determine whether the contract law and regulations are appropriate to allow punishment of those who act in an immoral manner.
My point was that our market regulations for Enron and Worldcom (a deregulated market mind you, those regulations were there for good reasons) were insufficient to prevent the type of wholesale fleecing of the public.
Of course there is no regulation currently preventing our own elected servants from a wholesale fleecing of the public either....
You're right. Our elected class is free to loot. Many of them are permitted, by law, to engage in insider trading, as I recently learned.
This unprincipled human greed (as opposed to benign self-interest) ruins free markets, leading to political "solutions" with unintended consequences; these solutions cause more problems, leading to more intervention and "solutions"...
I do get your points and I agree that certain conventions (ie- contracts) must exist to allow for a market to thrive.
If only we could get government to agree to limit its intervention in the markets to protecting property rights...
Instead, we get one intent on telling me how much water I can use to flush my waste to the septic tank.
I think perhaps truly free markets are likely as much as a fantasy as are 100% controlled markets. Both rely far too much on man being able to control (himself or others).
I'll have to think on this some more. Thanks for prodding me.
AP
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