“All proper human interactions are win-win; that’s why the parties decide to engage in them. It’s not the Henry Fords and Steve Jobs who exploit people. It’s the Al Capones and Bernie Madoffs. Voluntary trade, without force or fraud, is the exchange of value for value, to mutual benefit. In trade, both parties gain.
Each particular individual in the community who contributed to a man’s rise to wealth was paid at the time–either materially or, as in the case of parents and friends, spiritually. There is no debt to discharge. There is nothing to give back, because there was nothing taken away.
Well, maybe there is–in the other direction. The shoe is on the other foot. It is “the community” that should give back to the wealth-creators. It turns out that the 99% get far more benefit from the 1% than vice-versa.”
And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done thisthing shall surely die:
And he shall restore the lamb, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
-2 Samuel 12:1-13
[Image via Wikimedia Commons]
Tags: ayn rand, forbes, inequality, okay buddy, the bible
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men were created equal…”
Obviously, this is not an economic observation.
The problem with the rich in America today isn’t that they’re rich, it’s that they are taking power which isn’t theirs to take.
Both are a problem in my eyes. With few exceptions, if you are among the super rich, you are hoarding wealth, in turn, robbing the poor in a despicable display of living life. I know there’s a philanthropy argument, and it is not curing hunger and ending homelessness.
Okay, so Forbes is just trolling at this point, is what’s going on, right? This is just linkbait. Right?
Right?
RIGHT, MALLORY????
I’m trying really, really hard to believe that. I’m getting new Forbes-specific brow furrows, is how hard I am trying.
lol at the dude’s bio which is like “Ayn Rand correspondent” or something else amazing
My favorite part was when he said that Ayn Rand would come back from the dead to put an end to this stupid “community” idea once and for all. Maybe he’s an “Ayn Rand Zombie-Maker” as well as a correspondent?
so yes. yes, this is a joke. ok I can sleep better now, thanks!
(SHHHHHH LET ME HAVE MY DREAMS)
OH ALSO THOUGH, Mallory, oh my stars, can we deal with the fact that Ayn Rand lived in a home for aspiring actresses when she first came to Hollywood? Like, “the Studio Club in the 1920s when it was established to try and improve Hollywood’s image” alone is a pretty brilliant setting for a tv show, but then let’s add Ayn friggin’ Rand to the mix.
That’s pretty much the setting for the movie Stage Door. Ayn Rand’s legacy could’ve been a whooole lot better if only she had had to go toe-to-toe as a young’in with the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and Lucille Ball. Ah, what could have been…
Please tell me “John Galt” is the byline on that article.
nope, it’s a man with the last name “Binswanger” which is actually pretty great. Bins-wanger
What if someone were to acquire his cell phone number so that he might receive texts from … oh, let’s say, Dagny Taggart?
After all, “Harry” is SO CLOSE to “Hank”
I fucking love you.
Also, that chapter of the Bible does not get enough attention. As is the case for most chapters of the Bible about money, power, justice…
See also: Acts, Micah, the Sermon on the Mount …
Man, whenever a Christian politician starts going on about cutting WIC and the evils of socialized health care and stuff, I just want to yell the parable of the sheep and the goats at them until my head explodes.
I feel so bad for the women in that passage, though, reassigned husbands like so much property.
“All proper human interactions are win-win; that’s why the parties decide to engage in them… In trade, both parties gain.”
That is not true. Particularly with trade, the parties can decide to engage in the interaction for any number of reasons which do not necessarily mean they both win! For example, because it is the interaction where they lose the least. Or because they are misinformed. Or because of status quo bias, etc…
I thought I had written more, but when I woke up from my rage-induced blackout someone had written “STOP QUOTING AYN RAND” on my walls in blood.
A good example of a non-win-win human interaction was when I clicked on the link to this article and then read most of it. Forbes wins, I lose.
I actually dared to read some of the comments…and was pleasantly surprised.
My rage switched over to flat-out amusement right about here:
“Imagine the effect on our culture, particularly on the young, if…the moral praise showered on Mother Teresa went to someone like Lloyd Blankfein, who, in guiding Goldman Sachs toward billions in profits, has done infinitely more for mankind.”
Remember kids, accumulating vast amounts of wealth not only signifies your great achievement–achievement that The Poors are just not capable of, no matter how many minimum wage jobs they work simultaneously–but it makes you a goddamn moral SAINT!
Definitely. There just aren’t enough forces in the world right now telling young people that making money is the only thing that matters in the world ever.
See, I read that and was relieved someone finally called Mother Teresa out.*
* JUST KIDDING BECAUSE SHE WAS MOTHER TERESA. HEY BINSWANGER HOW MANY LEPERS HAVE YOU FED TODAY
I don’t know, Christopher Hitchens had some harsh things to say about Mother Teresa: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/f… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Missionary_Posit…
Not to say I think the dude who wrote the Forbes piece is anything other than full of crap – I thought the piece was satire until I read his bio.
Yeah, Mother Teresa was an abusive dick to the nuns she supervised, and didn’t do much to help the poor.
Clearly Mr. Binswanger is a Mr. Show afficionado – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF8wLg5Asgo
He taught at CUNY — it must’ve torn him up inside, getting those checks every two weeks from the good taxpayers of New York City.
It’s getting so easy to understand the French Revolution on a visceral level. I can’t read that article because I just read a Bloomberg article about the Waltons and their obscene wealth and unconscionable tax avoidance and I might have a rage stroke. And of course there’s all the news recently about how insanely income inequality has increased, and how only the rich have benefited from the economic recovery, having used the Recession as an excuse to fuck over their workers even more. All the stories about luxury retail surging and billionaires buying elections. I work at a public university and we have to beg these people for money because the governments they’ve bought can’t and won’t fund us to any useful degree. Something has to happen.
That's pretty much the setting for the movie Stage Door. Ayn Rand's legacy could've been a whooole lot better if only she had had to go toe-to-toe as a young'in with the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and Lucille Ball. Ah, what could have been…
UGH, I can’t even finish reading this or I will throw something at my computer and break it and I can’t afford a new one because I am not among the 1%.
But also (because I feel that others have adequately covered the most salient points here), don’t feed meat to your lamb! That’s how horror movies begin.
TO author your subtle suggestion that this passage is, somehow, to encourage the poor and celebrate the rich is so unfortunate. There are no good, moral rich people.
:”Upon this day, I tell you this, it will be more difficult for a rich man to reach my Father’s kingdom than it would be for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle”.
Just a little tidbit from our Savior, Christ Jesus.
Less we pretend that hoarding wealth when others of equal value to Christ, starve to death, is a moral decision.