caroljane

Stop tormenting me Michael, you cruel Knight of the Red Herring! Just a hint....a teeny, weeny hint....I won't tell anyone, honest.

Since 118 people have now viewed this topic, and no one has offered any relevant Rand evidence, I will go further and say that I would guess Rand paid her own employees the going rate, no more no less, and when she was offered free labour she took it. The value to those who worked for her would have been immeasurably greater to them than to her. I'd love to know what she actually paid or did not pay to secretaries, assistants, researchers etc. Her signature statement was the dollar sign which John Galt traced in the dirt.That is, the air. Making it not "filthy lucre" anymore.

I would like to remind you that we are on a forum, and not in a Western, Mr. Bissell. What names people use on forums is entirely their own business. I'm interested in a person's argumentation on an issue and in studying whether their arguments are convincing; under which name someone posts is irrelevant in that context. Nor am I interested in speculating whether the name they do use is their real name or not. I'd like to second that. And to add that,under whatever name, the anonymous music was lovely and evocative to me. (Hey X, maybe he's THE ONE (nudge nudge wink wink)

Infidel, this is not only a 1-on-1 debate between you and Michael, it is a public forum. I have indicated that I have an idea of M's solutions, but you have not answered my question about what yours are. Or am I just supposed to sit in the corner while the men talk?

I wonder what kind of moral pressure is being brought to bear on Noodlefooders etc to independently decide not to buy tickets and thereby not sanction Evil Open Objectivism.

Good grief! I am watching the Beck clip. Does he think his audience has never crossed into the US from Canada? Or notice the guns and dogs? These French citizens "sneaked into NY from Canada?" Did they swim? The book-reading in the starbucks etc reminds me irresistibly of descriptions I have read here of PARC's debut in the bowling alley.

I have not read The Coming Insurrection yet, so I cannot make a definite agreement or disagreement on its impact on the events in Islamic countries. French intellectuals? Chalice tabernac, say no more. Rather than have to read Tropismes again, I will gladly go to the barricades. "Shoot if you must this old grey head, but spare our country's flag!", she said. -"Barbara Freitchie"

You had to push it, didn't you? Hey, it's all part of my Randucation.

I'd like to read your book, J Neil. Where is it available? http://pulpless.com/0606.html Jeez... you didn't even say, "Thanks for your interest."

Dear Michael, I did not mean your reply was really absent! I have read the whole thread. I just wanted Infidel to state his own "solution". You didn't need to take the trouble, but thanks. I note that this thread now has 666 views, aaargh, the Number of the Beast!

My guess is that the Oist employer would pay each worker according to his evaluation of their performance and worth to the company. So in your case above, the man and woman with equal performance would get equal pay. The boss would disregard the societal norms and legality (if he was moral). If he chose, he could award the needier man with the family a bonus as charity.

Why? Are you saying it is up to the employer and the employer only to compensate as he sees fit? It was Ayn Rand who said it.

Absent his approach, what is yours? How do you recommend eliminating the threat of I-fundamentalism?

We can but try! (It's a snow day here and I don't want to catch up on chores). I think you are on to something with the essential profile. Now, considering that aliases are said to keep the original initials of the person, or reflect some aspect of their real lives, let's examine the crucial surname. McDuck. What suspects do we have? The intriguing Mr. McKeever, coy boytoy wannabe -- a decoy move on his part? Ba'al, who expressed an interest in eating haggis and thus could be considered "Mc"Kolker Bob Mac and Joel MacDonald are out unfortunately. As is well known, it is impossible to get rich in socialist Canada. Even pretending to be a billionaire is punishable by six years in an American prison. Oh well, back to the drawing board or the animation software. But there's money in this hyar list and I shall not give up the glorious quest.

Pas du tout - l'eclat, c'est moi.

Candu.

He was retrospecting to the early 1900's , when such was the norm, I think.

Maybe it's me who's missing something. I just can't see those two qualities as necessary opposites. Dictators can be highly self-disciplined, and lazy self-indulgent slobs on welfare can believe totally in live-and-let-live. Or am I seeing this too simplistically? It seem to me there would be too many exceptions to divide large numbers of people into these categories "as a primary."

No, I'm just sitting here quietly. I don't think I get Beck on my cable so it's a free analysis of a media person who is obviously very influential down there.

Michael, I'm a little confused. Are these two Poles the extremes of the "two categories" (other-controlling and self-controlling tendencies) you mentioned before?

Interesting. And offside, how did Jim Taggart, in the 1950s with a wife to support, and spinster Dagny apportion their pay? She was "pre-Objectivist" and he presumably had situational ethics.

That's OK - the jury seems to be out on Eddie Willers, but Eddie Lynam was a hero's name. But imagine the though of John Galt as a boyfriend - a guy with only two conversational modes: brusque imperatives ("Get out of my way") and three-hour monologues. Definitely a winner on the speed-dating circuit.

re:John & Dagny et al Thinking about the many readers who become interested in Objectivism through admiration of her heroes and heroines, I wonder if this isn't one reason that Objectivism attracts relatively few women compared with men. I remember reading Atlas Shrugged for the first time. I had been told it was a great novel by someone whose literary judgment I trusted. I finished it feeling alarmed and depressed. I didn't want to emulate the women or sleep with the men. I knew, with gloomy certainty, that I was definitely a second-hander, probably a moocher, and would possibly descend to looting if I got the chance. Those are hard facts to face when you are 18. It took me quite a while to get my self-esteem back. And I eventually married a guy named Eddie.

That's Canknowledgeheads, if you don't mind.

Right after this message - Ruby Dhalla in "I am not a Slaveowning Sikh Princess" was kinda fun too.