The
Rational Argumentator
Issue CCXII
October 15-17, 2009
Victoria:
Wendy Stolyarov
October 17, 2009
A digital painting of an early-twentieth-century woman by Wendy Stolyarov.
Wendy:
Wendy Stolyarov
October 17, 2009
The most recent self-portrait by Mrs. Stolyarov.
Gennady:
Wendy Stolyarov
October 17, 2009\
A portrait by Mrs. Stolyarov of her husband.
Rand Reimagined:
Wendy Stolyarov
October 17, 2009
This painting is Wendy Stolyarov's attempt to portray how Ayn Rand would have liked to look.
Economics
Why on Earth Do Americans Need Protection from Chinese Tires?:
Bradley Doucet
October 15, 2009
President Obama decided a couple of weeks ago to show just how much he promotes international cooperation by slapping a 35% tariff on imported Chinese tires. Bradley Doucet argues that if the American President and the Group of 20 want to do more good than harm, they would do well to adhere to some basic tenets of ethics and economics, and let voluntary transactions alone.
Inexcusable Unintended Consequences:
Gary Galles
October 15, 2009
Does the fact that the adverse consequences of a policy are unintended excuse them? In other words, under what circumstances is "I didn't mean it" a sufficient excuse or apology, with no further actions required? Dr. Gary Galles explores these questions.
Greedy-Bastard Economics:
Gary Galles
October 15, 2009
If your landlord or apartment manager hasn't gotten around to fixing your garbage disposal for weeks, how carefully do you think about why? If you are like many people, you simply blame your landlord or manager, rather than inquiring further. Dr. Gary Galles writes that this is an example of greedy-bastard economics: rather than tracing their understanding of something they dislike back to its ultimate source, people only trace it back until they get to someone they can demonize as a greedy bastard. That is, scapegoats become what Frederic Bastiat called "what is seen," while the real cause remains "what is unseen."
Future Prospects for Economic Liberty:
Walter Williams
October 15, 2009
On the other side of the coin from limited government is individual liberty. The Founders understood private property as the bulwark of freedom for all Americans, rich and poor alike. But following a series of successful attacks on private property and free enterprise—beginning in the early 20th century and picking up steam during the New Deal, the Great Society, and then again recently—the government designed by our Founders and outlined in the Constitution has all but disappeared. Thomas Jefferson anticipated this when he said, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” Walter Williams addresses the prospects for a recovery of liberty in the United States.
Ethics
The Fourth Revolution:
David Kelley
October 15, 2009
David Kelley writes that capitalism was the result of three revolutions, each of them a radical break with the past. The political revolution established the primacy of individual rights and the principle that government is man's servant, not his master. The economic revolution brought an understanding of markets. The Industrial Revolution radically expanded the application of intelligence to the process of production. But mankind never broke with its ethical past. The ethical principle that individual ability is a social asset is incompatible with a free society. If freedom is to survive and flourish, we need a fourth revolution, a moral revolution, that establishes the moral right of the individual to live for himself.
History
Columbus Day: In Praise of Exploitation:
Edward Hudgins
October 15, 2009
Many critics argue that Christopher Columbus gave us a devil's bargain. In October 1492 that Italian explorer, working for Spain, opened America to his fellow Europeans. The result: we got a prosperous New World by impoverishing, enslaving and murdering the natives who were already here.
"All Wars are Follies, very expensive, and very mischievous ones. When will Mankind be convinced of this, and agree to settle their Differences by Arbitration? Were they to do it, even by the Cast of a Dye, it would be better than by Fighting and destroying each other."
~ Benjamin Franklin