The Virtue of Selfishness
The other day I heard someone talking on the TV about Ayn Rands The Virtue of Selfishness, which caught my attention. Ive seen many references on this board to the selfish rich guys who oughta pay more taxes, or the greedy Wall Street bankers and mega-corporations that should do more for their employees. Its as if theyre not altruistic enough, or even unpatriotic. So I looked into it a little; understand, I aint the sharpest knife in the drawer, but so far I have come away with some interesting concepts.
According to Rand, everything we do is based on selfish motives, monetary, physical, psychological, some benefit we accrue even if its doing something for somebody else. And, theres nothing wrong with that, thats the way the world is and thats the way we are. Was it a bad thing when Bill Gates invented Windows, or Henry Ford mass produced automobiles? They got filthy rich, but we all benefited, no? They did what they did for selfish reasons, but one could argue for some level of virtue regardless of what their true motivations might have been, even if it was soley for financial gain.
Suppose we live in a society where selfishness is not rewarded, where would our innovations and tech advances come from then? Maybe some, but Im thinking wed have a whole lot less new ideas come to fruition. Thats what capitalism is all about, progress is built on selfishness. Doesnt mean we should not make sure that no ones rights are violated as an individual or as a company, or that the consumer and the marketplace are provided with honest data to make their decisions.
So Im thinking, selfishness is getting a bad rap, we need people to be trying to improve their lot in life. We need to be making sure selfishness pays off in our economy, we need to ensure its as easy as possible to be selfish in the marketplace, within the law that is.
Here's a link to AR's book, for those who might be interested. I've just started on it, might take awhile to get it. Like I said, I ain't the brightest guy around.
http://marsexxx.com/ycnex/Ayn_Rand-The_Virtue_of_Selfishness.pdf
The other day I heard someone talking on the TV about Ayn Rands The Virtue of Selfishness, which caught my attention. Ive seen many references on this board to the selfish rich guys who oughta pay more taxes, or the greedy Wall Street bankers and mega-corporations that should do more for their employees. Its as if theyre not altruistic enough, or even unpatriotic. So I looked into it a little; understand, I aint the sharpest knife in the drawer, but so far I have come away with some interesting concepts.
According to Rand, everything we do is based on selfish motives, monetary, physical, psychological, some benefit we accrue even if its doing something for somebody else. And, theres nothing wrong with that, thats the way the world is and thats the way we are. Was it a bad thing when Bill Gates invented Windows, or Henry Ford mass produced automobiles? They got filthy rich, but we all benefited, no? They did what they did for selfish reasons, but one could argue for some level of virtue regardless of what their true motivations might have been, even if it was soley for financial gain.
Suppose we live in a society where selfishness is not rewarded, where would our innovations and tech advances come from then? Maybe some, but Im thinking wed have a whole lot less new ideas come to fruition. Thats what capitalism is all about, progress is built on selfishness. Doesnt mean we should not make sure that no ones rights are violated as an individual or as a company, or that the consumer and the marketplace are provided with honest data to make their decisions.
So Im thinking, selfishness is getting a bad rap, we need people to be trying to improve their lot in life. We need to be making sure selfishness pays off in our economy, we need to ensure its as easy as possible to be selfish in the marketplace, within the law that is.
Here's a link to AR's book, for those who might be interested. I've just started on it, might take awhile to get it. Like I said, I ain't the brightest guy around.
http://marsexxx.com/ycnex/Ayn_Rand-The_Virtue_of_Selfishness.pdf