#1. “Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.”
― Ayn Rand
A far cry from the welfare statist social democrats’ ideas of freedom. Their idea of freedom is one of government dependency. All power to the Soviet! All power in the hands of the state! From each according to his ability, to each according to his need! The cry of socialists and communists is the cry for tyranny, authoritarianism, and dictatorship, as we see in Venezuela and North Korea.
#2. “Let anyone who believes that a high standard of living is the achievement of labor unions and government controls ask himself the following question: If one had a “time machine” and transported the united labor chieftains of America, plus three million government bureaucrats, back to the tenth century—would they be able to provide the medieval serf with electric light, refrigerators, automobiles, and television sets?”
― Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
Very funny. Rand understands that the parasite class has no productive value, other than what they can get from others. Innovation thrives in the free market thanks to competition, self interest and capitalism.
#3. “I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
― Ayn Rand
Rand here in Atlas Shrugged champions of the virtue of the individual ego. In the Fountainhead she would say “Ego is the fountainhead from which all human progress flows.” If we didn’t believe in ourselves, how could we accomplish greatness? If we found ourselves all the time doing nothing but living for others, how could we build the material wealth necessary in the first place to make charity possible? Rand’s quote is a slap in the face of socialists and collectivists everywhere, who demand that the individual be subjugated to the needs of the state.
#4. “Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
So true! Rand calls out those who wish to redistribute wealth they haven’t earned. Those who are the loudest when it comes to damning money, are almost always those who didn’t earn it in the first place.
#5. “Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Socialists of course don’t understand the first thing about economics. Their entire philosophy is perverting the laws of supply and demand. Money in a free market is simply a tool that can be used for good or evil. It’s who holds it that matters. People who say that money is the root of all evil are ignorant. It’s like blaming guns for shootings. Spoons for making people fat. It’s nonsense.
#6. “There is no such thing as a lousy job – only lousy men who don’t care to do it.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
People like to complain about immigration driving down prices. They say that we need to raise minimum wages, so minorities can’t compete with white labor. They say that we need to raise the wages so people will do the dirty jobs. Rand sideswipes those ideas here.
#7. “John Galt is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought to men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains—and he withdrew his fire—until the day when men withdraw their vultures.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Who is John Galt? He’s the man who stopped the motor of the world. In Rand’s fantastic novel, John Galt and the productive members of society retreat to where they are no longer forced to meet the demands set upon them. Her book features a tremendous tale of what happens when the parasite class can no longer mooch off of those whose energies they consume, adding nothing of their own of value.
#8. “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 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”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
What more can you really add to that? We can either live in a world where people trade voluntarily the fruits of their labor, or by covet means.
#9. “There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for me to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed or enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Rand echoes Tacitus here, who argued that the more corrupt a state, the more numerous the laws. The laws of the United States are so numerous now that everyone commits three felonies a day. This is the way that government can selectively enforce the law against anyone, anytime they please. Boston civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate said that “Since the New Deal era, Congress has delegated to various administrative agencies the task of writing the regulations,” even as “Congress has demonstrated a growing dysfunction in crafting legislation that can in fact be understood.” Now thanks to the FDA, the FCC, the FAA, and all the other agencies, everyone is in violation of some law, somewhere.
#10. “It is a policeman’s duty to retrieve stolen property and return it to its owners. But when robbery becomes the purpose of the law, and the policeman’s duty becomes, not protection, but the plunder of property – then it is an outlaw who has to become a policeman.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
It’s always fascinating, and somewhat hilarious when socialists democrats find themselves getting pounded in the face with pepper spray. After all, they wanted more government, so they got more government. Police are the instruments of tyranny when you have big government. Now our IRS, EPA and even the Department of Agriculture are carrying heavy weaponry to use against our own people. Think before you vote. Or don’t vote.