(June 5, 2012 at 11:56 pm)Tempus Wrote:(June 5, 2012 at 5:41 pm)Brian37 Wrote: I am sorry, but she was NOT an economist nor a PHD scientist. She was a play writer and book writer and political pundit. The atheist version of Ann Coulter. All the economic credulity of laymen with the same woo. I can drive a car and know it is not run on pixy dust, I am certainly just as qualified as she claimed to be.
All she did is successfully market an idea. BIG WOOPTY FUCK. She was an ornate writer and had a big vocabulary. SO WHAT. Lemmings are fooled by the ornate.
Ann Coulter and Ayn Rand are BOTH delusional.
Wtf? I wasn't appealing to Ayn Rand as an authority on anything*, it was a quote which - in addition to having nothing to do with economics, politics or Ann Coulter - concisely summarised what I wanted to say. If anything, you seem to be doing a vague appeal to authority by saying she wasn't an economist, or didn't have a Ph.D therefore she couldn't have possibly been correct about anything or have had anything of value to say (even on unrelated topics!). Whether or not you think that, I don't know, but I'm getting that impression. If you'd stop fixating on the author of the quote you might actually have some time to actually look at it.
*I actually disagree with some (possibly many if I knew more) of the things she's said / positions she held. All in all, I'm really not that familiar with her - I guess you could say I know enough to know that I don't want know any more. My personal dislike of her or disagreement with her on other matters does not affect the truth value of the particular statement quoted.
Look, if you read my post I admitted myself that I cant build a car but it doesn't take a car mechanic to drive one and know it is not run on pixy dust. You quoted her, all I was saying is that if you are going to quote her then I am just as qualified.
She had an idea, just like Marx had an idea. The mistake both of them made is that they both postulated a simple solution for a complex society and no society is as simple as one word or one label solutions. Not to mention conditions constantly change so what might work at a certain point may not be a good idea at another point. That was the other thing both of them missed.
Her simplistic idea of "selfishness" was utopian just like always sharing is utopian. People's motivations are a range, not an absolute.
