"Do Dictators Read Ayn Rand?" Quote of the Day
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"We don't want the companies to go ... we just want them to be (minority) partners."
--Socialist dictator Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
Anyone who's read Atlas Shrugged understands this statement full well. It's very easy for a thug to seize a productive asset; it's less easy for him to keep it productive. It's very easy for a statist to convince poor, ultra-unskilled workers to accept authoritarianism -- and its plunder; it's less easy for him to convince skilled professionals to accept authoritarianism -- and be plundered. It's very easy for a thief to steal; it's less easy for him to steal for a living.
Every single person affiliated with any capitalist enterprise -- whether investor, manager or employee -- should, on both moral and consequentialist grounds, flee Venezuela entirely. Better to lose a finger once than to be bloodsucked forever.
"I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours."
--Ellis Wyatt, "Atlas Shrugged"
More thoughts from Cato.
--Socialist dictator Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
Anyone who's read Atlas Shrugged understands this statement full well. It's very easy for a thug to seize a productive asset; it's less easy for him to keep it productive. It's very easy for a statist to convince poor, ultra-unskilled workers to accept authoritarianism -- and its plunder; it's less easy for him to convince skilled professionals to accept authoritarianism -- and be plundered. It's very easy for a thief to steal; it's less easy for him to steal for a living.
Every single person affiliated with any capitalist enterprise -- whether investor, manager or employee -- should, on both moral and consequentialist grounds, flee Venezuela entirely. Better to lose a finger once than to be bloodsucked forever.
"I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours."
--Ellis Wyatt, "Atlas Shrugged"
More thoughts from Cato.
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Posted by Kip on
27 February 2007
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