Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best quote ever about Ayn Rand:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

-- Paul Krugman quoting someone

So true! When I was 14, I loved both these books. I also wanted to be an astronaut.

Reach for the stars!

Love the Krugman poster!

Anonymous wrote:So do libertarians all send their kids to private schools, because public schools are definitely the government over-reaching, right?

Absolutely! And they also perform their own appendectomies since they don't believe in health insurance.

I know a 'libertarian' who's pushing fifty and claims he just "does not believe" in health insurance. He says a bunch of times he's been sick (well, had alcohol- and drug-related accidents) he paid for his treatments out of his own pocket. Newsflash - when you're sixty and need bypass surgery, the much-hated government would have to foot the bill.

Ayn Rand herself relied on Medicare when she got old and had cancer.

Anonymous wrote:Best quote ever about Ayn Rand:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

-- Paul Krugman quoting someone

Nothing demonstrates the power of the free market better than $100 yoga pants.

Anonymous wrote:So do libertarians all send their kids to private schools, because public schools are definitely the government over-reaching, right?

Heh heh.

Are you saying Alan Greenspan didn't sit, literally, at Ayn Rand's feet? I'm not the PP you're responding to, but this is a fact.

And I just read the Amazon blurb for Fault Lines, and all the stuff about "an economy over dependent on consumer credit" is totally consistent with the Fed's failure to use its regulatory power in the 80s and 90s. The author may be right, that the bankers' response to this lack of regulation was rational - but in the end, it's still lack of regulation for consumers and bankers (think Ayn Rand) that got us here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very few libertarians go about spouting off Rand at every turn. Stop looking for a boogeyman. Most libertarians want the government to leave them alone and that doesn't mean no government it means small effective and less interference in personal lives. That means women's choice if you do choose, freedom to guard your homes with firearms, less government control over what you eat, less government intervention into the private sector an lower taxes because obviously the government is bloated and over reaching.

There was Alan Greenspan, and boy did we pay for that copy of Atlas Shrugged, like a trillion times over.

Oh god. Okay. Please educate yourself as to the true causes of our financial crises. Read the book "Fault Lines".

So do libertarians all send their kids to private schools, because public schools are definitely the government over-reaching, right?

Anonymous wrote:Paul Ryan isn't libertarian, but he spouts off about Ayn Rand.

He's also a bookish 14 yo for all practical purposes.

Anonymous wrote:Very few libertarians go about spouting off Rand at every turn. Stop looking for a boogeyman. Most libertarians want the government to leave them alone and that doesn't mean no government it means small effective and less interference in personal lives. That means women's choice if you do choose, freedom to guard your homes with firearms, less government control over what you eat, less government intervention into the private sector an lower taxes because obviously the government is bloated and over reaching.

There was Alan Greenspan, and boy did we pay for that copy of Atlas Shrugged, like a trillion times over.

Paul Ryan isn't libertarian, but he spouts off about Ayn Rand.

Very few libertarians go about spouting off Rand at every turn. Stop looking for a boogeyman. Most libertarians want the government to leave them alone and that doesn't mean no government it means small effective and less interference in personal lives. That means women's choice if you do choose, freedom to guard your homes with firearms, less government control over what you eat, less government intervention into the private sector an lower taxes because obviously the government is bloated and over reaching.

Anonymous wrote:Best quote ever about Ayn Rand:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

-- Paul Krugman quoting someone

So true! When I was 14, I loved both these books. I also wanted to be an astronaut.

It's not that hard to write a fiction novel where the protagonists are perfect and the antagonists are defective in every possible way.

It is also not hard to realize that this does nothing to prove the validity of the protagonists' political or economic beliefs.