Quote of the day–Ayn Rand

Only a ghost can exist without material property; only a slave can work with no right to the product of his effort. The doctrine that ‘human rights’ are superior to ‘property rights’ simply means that some human beings have the right to make property out of others; since the competent have nothing to gain from the incompetent, it means the right of the incompetent to own their betters and to use them as productive cattle. Whoever regards this as human and right, has no right to the title of ‘human.’

John Galt
A character in the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
[How fortuitous that I should be listening to this particular portion of Atlas Shrugged within minutes of getting a pointer from Phil to the article about the Massachusetts Health Insurance Plan costing $151 million more than expected. Universal health care is NOT a right. It is the taking of one man’s property at the point of a gun and giving it to another who did not earn it. In other words it is a form of slavery.–Joe]

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One thought on “Quote of the day–Ayn Rand

  1. “It is the taking of one man’s property at the point of a gun and giving it to another who did not earn it. In other words it is a form of slavery.”

    Those two sentences, or something paraphrased from those two, is the most difficult thing for folks on the left to understand, even moreso than gun rights.

    They absolutely cannot see the government as anything but a gross benefaction machine, giving and never taking, forgetting that the money has to come from somewhere. I believe that is because they give government the “right” to takings.

    The truly sad thing is that they see business/capitalism, the motor of the ecomony and the manufacturer of personal income, as the exact opposite; always taking and never giving.

    I can forgive most persons who don’t like me owning firearms, provided they do not actively work to take them away. But I can never forgive someone who haphazardly gives the government “rights” because they disregard the possibility of the governmet as dangerous.

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