In this op-ed, “ARI’s Onkar Ghate explains why Christmas is “a spiritual holiday whose leitmotif is personal, selfish pleasure and joy” and why the commercialism of the season, “far from detracting from this celebration, as we’re often told, is integral to it.”
In this classic Christmas article, “Why Christmas Should Be More Commercial,” Leonard Peikoff argues that, “It is time to take the Christ out of Christmas, and turn the holiday into a guiltlessly egoistic, pro-reason, this-worldly, commercial celebration.”
“Since knowledge, thinking, and rational action are properties of the individual, since the choice to exercise his rational faculty or not depends on the individual, man’s survival requires that those who think be free of the interference of those who don’t.”
While you’re waiting for your copy to arrive in the mail, check out this new YouTube playlist devoted exclusively to the themes found in In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance, the new book edited by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins.
One of the biggest threats America faces — we are told — is the assault on our workforce: the loss of American jobs to immigrants, to foreign competition fueled by free trade, and even to technology that will make all kinds of jobs obsolete. In this talk the Ayn Rand Institute's executive chairman, Yaron Brook, argues that this fear is entirely misplaced — that a proper grasp of the virtue of productiveness shows that far from fearing and opposing free trade, immigration and robots, we should be eagerly embracing all three.
Yaron Brook’s three-lecture course “The Corporation,” on the history, economics and morality of the modern corporation, is now available online — for free.
Financiers don’t create the products that enrich our lives — they help grow the businesses that create the products that enrich our lives. Yet many people believe on some level that finance is immoral. Maybe not totally. Maybe it has some redeeming features. But at best it is regarded as a necessary evil. If our economic well-being depends on a vibrant and innovative financial industry, why does no one speak up to defend finance?
Critics of cronyism typically describe the problem as politicians and businesses conspiring to win government favors at the expense of taxpayers, or the public in general. While this view is not entirely wrong, it misses important aspects of the problem and does a grave injustice to businessmen who succeed through production rather than pull. This talk, by Ayn Rand Institute director of Legal Studies Steve Simpson, untangles the confusion about cronyism and explains why its biggest victims are businessmen.
What motivates the Islamic terrorists? Why are our intellectuals unable and unwilling to recognize the moral distinction between America and her enemies? Why are those thought leaders busy philosophically disarming America?
