Category: Capitalism (Page 7 of 8)

Another fine article from Bill, over at NRO. This point in particular resonated with what I’ve been thinking about the whole mess:

So how do we inflict some badly-needed pain on people who need to feel it, without hurting the rest of the good and honest folks who pay their bills responsibility?

Much easier said than done, unfortunately.

There’s a comment thread for the article over at Bill’s place.

This New Yorker cartoon is simply brilliant!

Thanks to Vinod for pointing it out!

Megan McArdle:

However did we manage to get through the first 200 years without Barack Obama to beat some progress out of the corporations that have been holding us back?

Hat tip: Instapundit

Aptly put in 2003; applies just as well in 2008.

In response to the most recent of several recommendations over the years, I’ve finally picked up a copy of Atlas Shrugged and dug in for what I’ve been assured will be a well worthwhile 1166 pages of reading. (I’ve only made it up to page 232 so far, so no spoilers, please, as I’m muchly enjoying the story!)

Among my favorite passages thus far, this bit of insight into protagonist Hank Rearden in a moment of crisis (p. 214):

He saw for the first time that he had never known fear because, against any disaster, he had held the omnipotent cure of being able to act. No, he thought, not an assurance of victory — who can ever have that? — only the chance to act, which is all one needs. Now he was contemplating, impersonally and for the first time, the real heart of terror: being delivered to destruction with one’s hands tied behind one’s back.

Well, then, go on with your hands tied, he thought. Go on in chains. Go on. It must not stop you. . . .

The passage definitely struck a chord with me, as the mere opportunity to act of my own accord, even if sometimes in error, is all that I have ever asked, and all that ever seemed truly necessary to me.

I look forward to enjoying more such gems if what I’ve read so far is representative of what’s in store.

This recent comment following Dr. Helen’s post “Time for Another Boston Tea Party?”, struck me as aptly put:

There are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week. We all get that, rich or poor. What one does with that time is up to that individual. 3% of the population, on average, has a library card. It’s free! The contents of a library are free to borrow! The cumulative knowledge of mankind is at hand, free! There are librarians there to help you, if you don’t understand the Dewey Decimal System. Free!

All men are created equal. After that, it’s up to each and every one of us. The reason one is rich, one is poor, one lives in a huge house, and one lives in an 8×10 cell is what’s between his ears. Always has been, always will be. Emotional IQ as well as intelligence IQ. A fair tax is a killer idea. If it’s fair. That is, as long as fairness is not the same as beauty, being in the eye of the beholder.

I am far and away from being wealthy. I believe in paying the goose that lays the golden eggs. It is good to help those who cannot help themselves. Food, clothing, roof over the head, help to get back on your feet. Then the “training wheels” need to come back off.

I have great sympathy for those who truly struggle, and believe those of us who are better off should do what we can to help others lift themselves up out of debilitating poverty. But if we value this magnificent free society that allows the production of this wealth that we are so fortunate to enjoy, we must do so by means of voluntary good that is consistent with the free society’s principles, rather than by coercive means, and we mustn’t allow the perpetuation of a “victim” mentality, or a soft bigotry of low expectations, to substitute for doing real, practical good.

Bill Whittle eloquently yet succinctly addressed the issue of poverty, what to do about it, and what not to do about it in his 2003 essay “Trinity” — highly recommended, and always worth another reading.