Taxes, Religion, Ayn Rand

First and very deeply to my heart I would like to compliment Tim on his choice of the name for this blog.  If you have read both of those books you will see that each of those characters are amazing people struggling against (or for depending on your view) the system that is doing nothing to help her and is at most times hindering her.  Seems  much like us today.  Not only that those two characters keep their worlds afloat, despite the fact that they are being dragged down.

Ahh and now to the word selfish.  It just might be my favorite philosophy out there.  I am going to make a small assumption based on how negatively you have used the word Tyler and say that you think it is a terrible thing.  Now let's look at what is positive about being selfish, and use one basic premise that man's greatest goals are to live and to be happy.  Now it bad that a selfish man will spend his time and effort doing the best he can at a job because that money and work makes him happy.  You make the assumption that being selfish means hurting or taking advantage of other, a great smear campaign of the word by religious establishments because to be selfish is to think of yourself, and to think in general about what makes you happy and leading your life in order to aline it with your happiness.  But if being selfish is bad then it is ok that you do not think of yourself first and can be allowed to be lead around like sheep and be told what makes you happy. Now it seems to me that it is not selfishness that is at fault but paucity of thought and lack of enough self-respect to do what makes you happy.  

Now you also stated that with out making others happy we can not be truly happy. That is the most twisted statement of logic I have heard in a long time.  Happiness is a truly personal experience. While you can experience happiness with someone, or by helping someone, it is still something YOU feel.  You can not feel an other's happiness or sadness or what ever feeling they are having.  Feelings like happiness are made by YOUR reactions and morals and actions, so it is within your power to make yourself and yourself only happy.  I have seen a great many people who try to put their happiness in that of others and are miserable, and they are baffled as to why.  They can not understand why they are not happy, they have worked so hard to make others happy.  And I feel that can be changed by my little philosophy above.  That person I just painted is in essence an emotional parasite, unable to create for himself and trying feed off of others.  

You might argue but then where is love I will quote Ayn Rand on this one: "When you are in love, it means that the person you love is a great personal and selfish importance to you and to your life.  If selfless, it would have to mean that you derive no personal pleasure or happiness from the company and the existence of the person you love, and  that you are motivated only by self-sacrificial pity for that person's need of you.  I don't have to point out to you that no one would be flattered by, nor would accept, a concept of that kid.  Love is not self-sacrifice, but the most profound assertion of your own needs and values.  It is for your own happiness that you need the person you love, and that is the greatest compliment, the greatest tribute you can pay to that person"

Hodge you say that say business can not create or be successful with out the workers.  That is true but what is important about that statement is that it CANNOT be reversed.  While the man who started the business can not do all the manual labor, the manual laborer could never create the ideas or processes that allow him to have a job in the first place.  And you all talk about helping others, so lets look how well a person uses a dollar.  You give a laborer 5% tax rebate to help him out, he/she can use that money for what health care, a new car, TV, cigarettes, drugs?  Most of which do not have much help to others.  No you give the business owner an extra 5% off on taxes and what can he create, more jobs, processes that can save time and labor all things to me that seem to have a much wider effect.  The old proverb says don't bite the hand that feeds you, but we seem to think it's ok so long as we chop off the hand.  I do not think that you should cripple the working class with taxes.    

You also say that capitalism in all it's glory still has a lower class working for an upper class.  Now Hodge you understand economics and shouldn't use this as a criticism, by function of any economy regardless of implementation there is always a lower class working for an upper class.  This is because we are not created equally, by privilege, physical prowess and intelligence all of which create gaps and will always create gaps in the classes.  

Now to everyone, I encourage you all to write more, because you never know how solid your morals, ideals and philosophy is until someone challenges it. And challenge is good, so thanks everyone for writing, it helps me, and that selfishness is so so satisfying.