"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion..." - Ayn Rand

Posted by GaltsGulch 9 years, 9 months ago to Pics
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"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice- you may know that your society is doomed."

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  • Posted by Abaco 9 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That's interesting Mitch. Do you have children? If so, what's your take on public schools?
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  • Posted by Abaco 9 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I feel like a tool if I take part, anymore. You call it "taking your marbles and leave". I call it withdrawing myself from the system - going Galt. I was very involved in my younger years. I realized my views are so outside the norm (here in California) that I don't give any of it much thought anymore. I'm here to make money, enjoy my family and do some good fishing. Life's good. I think that to believe that my vote will change this system is like pounding sand.

    I do appreciate your thoughts above. And, I don't fault you, at all, for voting. To each their own.
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  • Posted by Mitch 9 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Don’t like Rand Paul… I’d vote for him if I had to though. Like Cruz, seems conservative. The religious views don’t bother me as much as most of you guys here. Rand Paul is too much like his father, not as bad but all the same. We have a rational self-interest in the rest of the world, don’t think their isolationist views are the best for us. The libertarian ideology is great when your young and you don’t have children, it’s a problem when you have the responsibility to watch over your children. I don’t want to live in a society with welfare and drugs; these two don’t mix. If we removed welfare, I’d be all for it.
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  • Posted by Mitch 9 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    This reasoning is childlike, if you can’t get your way, you going to take your marbles and leave. Look, just because you don’t agree 100% shouldn’t preclude you from participating; this is exactly what the other side wants you to do, you will be a tool.
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  • Posted by broskjold22 9 years, 9 months ago
    The drug companies are fixing to have prices fixed, so this quote is kind of well-timed.
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  • Posted by Abaco 9 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That's a bad argument: I don't vote, therefore I should "be happy" with Sanders. It's a popular argument (very) and my (of all people) mother-in-law tried it on me the other night. She's an elderly French woman. My reply to her, "So, if my two choices are Stalin or Hitler and I don't vote don't I still have a right to complain?" Point well taken...

    But, I understand where you're going (I just get riled at that familiar argument - no offense, haha). Honestly, Mitch? I think it's all a fraud. I'm not even convinced that the votes are counted anymore.

    All the best.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    There are no conservative candidates.
    The GOP and Dems are one party, not two.
    Paul is the only pro-liberty candidate. The rest are all evil, statist looters.
    Don't consent to slavery.
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  • Posted by tohar1 9 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I would appreciate it if you would get out and vote anyway. There are plenty of other offices which will be decided, and depending on where you live, there may be local issues to be decided. Too much blood has been shed by those before us to just give up the RIGHT to vote, even if you leave the Presidential part of the ballot blank (or support another candidate, even though he/she may not win--Constitution Party, Libertarian Party, etc.).
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  • Posted by Mitch 9 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    So if Dr. Paul isn’t the conservative nominee and you deiced to stay home, will you be happy with Bernie Sanders? We don’t have to agree 100% to work together, we have to just agree enough to keep the other party out of office. I vote for the candidate I want in the primary and I vote against the candidate I don’t want in the general.
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  • Posted by Abaco 9 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'll only vote if Rand is the candidate. Otherwise, I'm heading to the pub that night in November. Rand is the only one who really gets it. I can't associate conservatism with statism. They go together like ketchup on your watermelon.
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  • Posted by Solver 9 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Candidates that respect individual rights, that's too radical. Candidates that are Socialists, Fascists, Corporatists, that's become more the norm. History is littered with other societies that devolved this way.
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  • Posted by tohar1 9 years, 9 months ago
    It sounds like her foresight was describing a certain braggadocios candidate for the highest office in the land...(Donald Trump) and I really wish people would "wake up and smell the coffee" before he pours it out over them. (PS: Rand Paul is still my candidate of choice...)
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