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How should we live? For God? For reason? For others? For the earth? For "humanity"? If we answer any of these, then the next question is, why? Why should we live for God? Why according to reason? Why for others, the earth, or humanity? The only reasonable answer to this question is that to...
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Social Security: So Simple A Caveman Could Run It. By Monty Pelerin , posted February 7th, 2010 http://www.economicnoise.com/2010/02/07/social-security-so-simple-a-caveman-could-run-it/ The establishment of Social Security as a retirement program should have been so simple that a caveman could have run...
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America’s Bucket List By Monty Pelerin , posted January 1st, 2010 http://www.economicnoise.com/2010/01/01/americas-bucket-list/ Jim H. Ainsworth wrote a timely and appropriate article in American Thinker entitled A Bucket List for America . Unlike the movie, Ainsworth explains that his bucket list...
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By Monty Pelerin , posted December 3rd, 2009 http://www.economicnoise.com/2009/12/03/jimmy-stewart-wouldnt-run-these-banks/ Frank Capra’s George Bailey of Bailey Savings and Loan would surely not recognize our banking system or its accounting. However, Mr. Potter, George’s evil competitor...
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Filed under: economy, politics, financial system, Government, economics, morality, ethics, insolvency, bankruptcy, credibility, integrity, failing
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By Monty Pelerin , posted November 30th, 2009 http://www.economicnoise.com/2009/11/30/wisdom-eisenhower-and-michael-crichton-on-science/ Michael Crichton President Eisenhower Anyone can rent a scientist. But when Federal funding is at stake, it appears you can also rent a conclusion. In his farewell...
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Fannie Mae reports third quarter loss of $18.9 billion and requests another $15 billion in taxpayer funds. Another government enterprise comes back to the well for more, with no end in sight. Bloomberg has a summary of the results here . FNM was the organization that couldn’t do accounting properly...
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Socialism inevitably leads to destitution and famine in direct proportion to the thoroughness with which it is applied. This has been shown to be true historically, with or without Marxist ideology or 20th century totalitarianism. It has starved 17th century colonists in Virginia and Plymouth just as...
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It is useful to divide "virtuous behavior" into two categories: 1) actions which are motivated by conscience and 2) actions considered virtuous, but which are not motivated by conscience. The first category concerns man's morality . The second concerns man's character . While moral...
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Note: This is a post a wrote a while ago on another site. Stories featuring super-heroes, like the ancient myths featuring gods, can be an excellent medium for exploring broad issues through allegory. The super-human characters can personify competing ideologies and forces. The movie Watchmen , as well...
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I claim that the ultimate goals of humans are products of feeling and not reason. However, Roderick Long, as a eudaimonist, claims that what the teleological philosopher usually thinks of as ultimate goals are really penultimate goals (although he doesn't use that term) which serve as means to the...
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In the following, I shall discuss the principles of Aristotle's ethical and political theory, paying close attention to what Aristotle meant by eudaimonia , and what he didnt'. Most of the following quotes are from the beginning of Book 1 of the Nicomachean Ethics ( as published on the web by...
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In order to present the theory of ethics which underlies my libertarian political philosophy, I am going to first carefully discuss the theory of ethics currently dominant among other Austro-libertarians: that of Murray N. Rothbard. Note: In what follows, I'm going to come down pretty hard on Rothbard's...
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Edwin Patterson, as quoted by Murray Rothbard, defines natural law as: “Principles of human conduct that are discoverable by “reason” from the basic inclinations of human nature, and that are absolute, immutable and of universal validity for all times and places. This is the basic conception...
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On the Mises Institute boards , somebody asked the question, “Who is the founding father of libertarianism?” Board members responded with an nice mix of usual suspects and surprising ones. My first thought was John Locke. But then I reconsidered, and wrote (basically) the following: John...
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There is a moral code written in our nature. When we take up an unused piece of nature and begin to use it, we instinctively think of it as our property. We take instinctive affront when our person or our property is assaulted by others. We feel instinctive outrage when we see the person or property...