Thursday, August 12, 2004
Walter Williams And Ayn Rand
I'm sure I've mentioned this before but Walter Williams is the Ayn Rand of our times.
How can I be so sure? Just compare their writing. First example is from Ayn Rand:
If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor.
Any alleged "right" of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.
No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation, an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as "the right to enslave."
-- Ayn Rand, "Man's Rights," The Virtue of Selfishness
Now from Walter Williams:
Republicans and right-wingers support taking the earnings of one American and giving them to farmers, banks, airlines and other failing businesses. Democrats and left-wingers support taking the earnings of one American and giving them to poor people, cities, and artists. Both agree on taking one American's earnings to give to another; they simply differ on the recipients. This kind of congressional activity constitutes at least two-thirds of the federal budget.
Regardless of the purpose such behavior is immoral. It's a reduced form of slavery. After all what is the essence of slavery? It's the forceful use of one person to serve the purposes of another person. When Congress, through the tax code, takes the earnings of one person and turns around to give it to another person in the forms of prescription drugs, social security, food stamps, farm subsidies or airline bailouts, it is forcibly using one person to serve the purposes of another.
-- Walter Williams, July 26, 2004
Therefore, instead of filling my blog with his articles I've now linked his page to mine. All of his columns are excellent so please check his site often.