|
 willyisfuzzy rated 20 months ago - Great book.
"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. 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...
|
|
29 Reviews
-
-
- willyisfuzzy rated 20 months ago
- Great book.
"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. 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. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot."
- SeekExcellence rated 24 months ago
- A fantastic excerpt - one that is worth referring to and discussing with those who oppose capitalism.
- Gregoir rated 34 months ago
- This is the money speech made by Francisco d'Anconia in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Even if you despise Rand or rational thought in general, read the excerpt, it might make you want more of her sublime fiction (and non-fiction).
 stillwatersca rated 37 months ago- Why did Ayn Rand feel she needed to preach through fiction? This didactic excerpt sounds more like a lecture, and is awful fiction with way too much subjective rambling. I don't see logic in objectivism; I see the human mind trying to justify feelings and fill in blanks when their sense of right and wrong fails them. Ayn Rand's beliefs, much like those of other early capitalists, are obsolete in the modern world.
- cerpntaxt rated 27 months ago
- i love this speech
- Tallocaust rated 33 months ago
- Interesting. Ayn Rand is not a god to me by any means, but she definitely had some insightful things that needed to be said.
- greystonestreet rated 34 months ago
- There can be no objective truths without the existence of God, who is the only arbiter of truths. Ann Rynd is highly overrated.
- Westerner1967 rated 37 months ago
- Rand rocks! The book makes more sense than most of the stuff that get pushed out today.
People without money are usually the ones most jealous of those who have it, and most often come up with their own explanations as to why they don't have it, it isn't their fault, it is something or someone else working against them. Right. If that were true, wouldn't only the already rich be the ones staying rich, and no-one else could break into the ranks of the wealthy? Let's be honest. When it comes to wealth acquisition, or anything else worthwhile, "If you think you can or you think you can't, you are probably right."
- KevMoo rated 34 months ago
- This is "the" quote from Atlas Shrugged. I feel sorry for those that worship Ayn Rand. She has some good ideas, but she's way off the deep end on a lot of issues in my opinion. Her analysis of money in this passage is worth reading and reflecting upon...just don't take it as gospel.
- Laukev7 rated 38 months ago
-
I am sorry to say that I used to be a proponent of this system. Money is not evil because it makes people greedy; it is evil precisely because it is NOT based on a rational and fair system; it is backed by an unfair and authoritarian pyramidal scheme. The 'self-made' industrialist' is a lie sold by multinationals to justify their stranglehold over the economy.
What the propagandists call the 'free market' is actually a corporate oligopoly hidden behind a market façade whose substance has rotten away decades ago. Even the real free market system is flawed because it doesn't stay free without outside intervention.
|
