abaris Wrote:You seem to be reading a lot into that quote that isn't there. Like inheritance being earned and the proceeds from three jobs being unearned. Rand would have agreed with your final statement.Mister Agenda Wrote:The Objectivist ethics holds that human good does not require human sacrifices and cannot be achieved by the sacrifice of anyone to anyone. It holds that the rational interests of men do not clash—that there is no conflict of interests among men who do not desire the unearned, who do not make sacrifices nor accept them, who deal with one another as traders, giving value for value."
Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, 1964
As with every philosophy/ideology, it might work in a perfect world where everybody's toeing the line. But humans are individuals, and there's more.
How can the heir of a large fortune claim to have earned what they own? The only thing going for them is the coincidence of birth. How can someone working two or three jobs and barely scratch a living, not desire the so called unearned? They aren't in that situation by choice but because noone grants them their place in society, which would collapse if they weren't there to do their jobs. So, I go even as far as to claim that the ones working two or three jobs for a pittance are more important than the heir, when it comes to humanity.
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.