OT: Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”

[briansd1]

[quote=Arraya]
The financial system is not real. It’s layers of abstractions that dictate and require a certain behavior. If the whole thing spontaneously combusted it would not mean a damn thing to the natural order of things( you know like water and air quality, energy supplies, the ability to move things around with our applied scientific knowledge called technology). You know the things that are empirically tested and quantifiable. The financial system is only in our heads and thus, if it collapsed, does not mean anything unless we choose to act in a detrimental manner.

[/quote]

That’s a very interesting thought, Arraya.

You’ve said before that the financial system would collapse on its own weight and that you would rather have it occur sooner than later.

But if money is not real and something just conjuged up by humans, then it doesn’t matter if we continue to spend and get into debt.

So why not enjoy to the maximum what money can provide us today? The money denominated accounts that we keep aren’t real anyway… something else will replace them in the future.

If I can acquire hard assets (such as real estate) today, then why not do it? My money could go poof tomorrow, but I will still have the hard assets. That’s probably why people are buying gold and commodities.

[Shadowfax]

[quote=CA renter]I second (third) that, Davelj. Believe it or not, I agree very much with all of your posts on this thread.
Thanks to Concho for his posts, too.
Great thread.[/quote]

ditto

[Shadowfax]

[quote=CA renter]I second (third) that, Davelj. Believe it or not, I agree very much with all of your posts on this thread.
Thanks to Concho for his posts, too.
Great thread.[/quote]

ditto

[Shadowfax]

[quote=CA renter]I second (third) that, Davelj. Believe it or not, I agree very much with all of your posts on this thread.
Thanks to Concho for his posts, too.
Great thread.[/quote]

ditto

[Shadowfax]

[quote=CA renter]I second (third) that, Davelj. Believe it or not, I agree very much with all of your posts on this thread.
Thanks to Concho for his posts, too.
Great thread.[/quote]

ditto

[Shadowfax]

[quote=CA renter]I second (third) that, Davelj. Believe it or not, I agree very much with all of your posts on this thread.
Thanks to Concho for his posts, too.
Great thread.[/quote]

ditto

[Shadowfax]

[quote=Butleroftwo]gandalf is this blogs Obama franchisee. Be careful with gandalf, he(?) pretends to be like everyone else until one of his core issues is discussed. He has tried to establish his character here by letting us know that he is Tall, rides a motorcycle, owns a business, is Columbia educated and is independent.
His only goal is to push Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, government control (left of center or way left of center only), strange foreign policy, elitism and whatever this mysterious president has on his list. I would guess that he walked away from a party meeting sometime in 2005 with a list of blogs that he needed to infiltrate. Since then we have been graced with his “Social Marketing” techniques from some unpublished manual.[/quote]

(yes, I am late to this thread. Catching up quickly though.)

Wow, someone’s been paying attention. Does this sort of thing count as stalking?

I dunno…from what you have summarized, this gandalf guy sounds kind of dreamy!

[Shadowfax]

[quote=Butleroftwo]gandalf is this blogs Obama franchisee. Be careful with gandalf, he(?) pretends to be like everyone else until one of his core issues is discussed. He has tried to establish his character here by letting us know that he is Tall, rides a motorcycle, owns a business, is Columbia educated and is independent.
His only goal is to push Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, government control (left of center or way left of center only), strange foreign policy, elitism and whatever this mysterious president has on his list. I would guess that he walked away from a party meeting sometime in 2005 with a list of blogs that he needed to infiltrate. Since then we have been graced with his “Social Marketing” techniques from some unpublished manual.[/quote]

(yes, I am late to this thread. Catching up quickly though.)

Wow, someone’s been paying attention. Does this sort of thing count as stalking?

I dunno…from what you have summarized, this gandalf guy sounds kind of dreamy!

[Shadowfax]

[quote=Butleroftwo]gandalf is this blogs Obama franchisee. Be careful with gandalf, he(?) pretends to be like everyone else until one of his core issues is discussed. He has tried to establish his character here by letting us know that he is Tall, rides a motorcycle, owns a business, is Columbia educated and is independent.
His only goal is to push Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, government control (left of center or way left of center only), strange foreign policy, elitism and whatever this mysterious president has on his list. I would guess that he walked away from a party meeting sometime in 2005 with a list of blogs that he needed to infiltrate. Since then we have been graced with his “Social Marketing” techniques from some unpublished manual.[/quote]

(yes, I am late to this thread. Catching up quickly though.)

Wow, someone’s been paying attention. Does this sort of thing count as stalking?

I dunno…from what you have summarized, this gandalf guy sounds kind of dreamy!

[Shadowfax]

[quote=Butleroftwo]gandalf is this blogs Obama franchisee. Be careful with gandalf, he(?) pretends to be like everyone else until one of his core issues is discussed. He has tried to establish his character here by letting us know that he is Tall, rides a motorcycle, owns a business, is Columbia educated and is independent.
His only goal is to push Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, government control (left of center or way left of center only), strange foreign policy, elitism and whatever this mysterious president has on his list. I would guess that he walked away from a party meeting sometime in 2005 with a list of blogs that he needed to infiltrate. Since then we have been graced with his “Social Marketing” techniques from some unpublished manual.[/quote]

(yes, I am late to this thread. Catching up quickly though.)

Wow, someone’s been paying attention. Does this sort of thing count as stalking?

I dunno…from what you have summarized, this gandalf guy sounds kind of dreamy!

[Shadowfax]

[quote=Butleroftwo]gandalf is this blogs Obama franchisee. Be careful with gandalf, he(?) pretends to be like everyone else until one of his core issues is discussed. He has tried to establish his character here by letting us know that he is Tall, rides a motorcycle, owns a business, is Columbia educated and is independent.
His only goal is to push Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, government control (left of center or way left of center only), strange foreign policy, elitism and whatever this mysterious president has on his list. I would guess that he walked away from a party meeting sometime in 2005 with a list of blogs that he needed to infiltrate. Since then we have been graced with his “Social Marketing” techniques from some unpublished manual.[/quote]

(yes, I am late to this thread. Catching up quickly though.)

Wow, someone’s been paying attention. Does this sort of thing count as stalking?

I dunno…from what you have summarized, this gandalf guy sounds kind of dreamy!

[Shadowfax]

[quote=jficquette]While a relatively high IQ doesn’t guarantee success, IQ is largest correlating factor to how much people make. Its also the largest correlator for those who commit crime. The average IQ of those in prison is between 70-75.

The Human animal is defined by its intelligence. Whatever defines a species and how the individual members fit relative to that determines how the spoils are divided.

John[/quote]
I have not read any of Rand’s works. They are just too damn long. I tried once but quickly lost interest. (And this is from someone who has read a lot of Tolstoy!)

John, I think you are giving too much creedence to an IQ test that doesn’t take into account what the intelligence is focused on or how it is measured. Setting aside the violent offenders, most people in prison these days were petty criminals (drug-related) trying to get ahead in the only way they had available to them. While many were unsuccessful at traditional forms of education, I am sure they were plenty “street smart” until they got caught. I don’t think you or I would last one day in their street environment. By the same measure, that makes us of a low IQ.

The only way to test my theory, sadly, is we need to throw the management of most Wall Street firms in jail, since they managed to lead criminal activites and not get caught, largely through influence over the laws themselves. Buy the votes on a bill that makes stealing legal. There’s IQ for you…The petty criminals just didn’t steal a large enough amount of money.

[Shadowfax]

[quote=jficquette]While a relatively high IQ doesn’t guarantee success, IQ is largest correlating factor to how much people make. Its also the largest correlator for those who commit crime. The average IQ of those in prison is between 70-75.

The Human animal is defined by its intelligence. Whatever defines a species and how the individual members fit relative to that determines how the spoils are divided.

John[/quote]
I have not read any of Rand’s works. They are just too damn long. I tried once but quickly lost interest. (And this is from someone who has read a lot of Tolstoy!)

John, I think you are giving too much creedence to an IQ test that doesn’t take into account what the intelligence is focused on or how it is measured. Setting aside the violent offenders, most people in prison these days were petty criminals (drug-related) trying to get ahead in the only way they had available to them. While many were unsuccessful at traditional forms of education, I am sure they were plenty “street smart” until they got caught. I don’t think you or I would last one day in their street environment. By the same measure, that makes us of a low IQ.

The only way to test my theory, sadly, is we need to throw the management of most Wall Street firms in jail, since they managed to lead criminal activites and not get caught, largely through influence over the laws themselves. Buy the votes on a bill that makes stealing legal. There’s IQ for you…The petty criminals just didn’t steal a large enough amount of money.

[Shadowfax]

[quote=jficquette]While a relatively high IQ doesn’t guarantee success, IQ is largest correlating factor to how much people make. Its also the largest correlator for those who commit crime. The average IQ of those in prison is between 70-75.

The Human animal is defined by its intelligence. Whatever defines a species and how the individual members fit relative to that determines how the spoils are divided.

John[/quote]
I have not read any of Rand’s works. They are just too damn long. I tried once but quickly lost interest. (And this is from someone who has read a lot of Tolstoy!)

John, I think you are giving too much creedence to an IQ test that doesn’t take into account what the intelligence is focused on or how it is measured. Setting aside the violent offenders, most people in prison these days were petty criminals (drug-related) trying to get ahead in the only way they had available to them. While many were unsuccessful at traditional forms of education, I am sure they were plenty “street smart” until they got caught. I don’t think you or I would last one day in their street environment. By the same measure, that makes us of a low IQ.

The only way to test my theory, sadly, is we need to throw the management of most Wall Street firms in jail, since they managed to lead criminal activites and not get caught, largely through influence over the laws themselves. Buy the votes on a bill that makes stealing legal. There’s IQ for you…The petty criminals just didn’t steal a large enough amount of money.

[Shadowfax]

[quote=jficquette]While a relatively high IQ doesn’t guarantee success, IQ is largest correlating factor to how much people make. Its also the largest correlator for those who commit crime. The average IQ of those in prison is between 70-75.

The Human animal is defined by its intelligence. Whatever defines a species and how the individual members fit relative to that determines how the spoils are divided.

John[/quote]
I have not read any of Rand’s works. They are just too damn long. I tried once but quickly lost interest. (And this is from someone who has read a lot of Tolstoy!)

John, I think you are giving too much creedence to an IQ test that doesn’t take into account what the intelligence is focused on or how it is measured. Setting aside the violent offenders, most people in prison these days were petty criminals (drug-related) trying to get ahead in the only way they had available to them. While many were unsuccessful at traditional forms of education, I am sure they were plenty “street smart” until they got caught. I don’t think you or I would last one day in their street environment. By the same measure, that makes us of a low IQ.

The only way to test my theory, sadly, is we need to throw the management of most Wall Street firms in jail, since they managed to lead criminal activites and not get caught, largely through influence over the laws themselves. Buy the votes on a bill that makes stealing legal. There’s IQ for you…The petty criminals just didn’t steal a large enough amount of money.

[Author]

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