Why Not For Himself?

Many heard John McCain’s acceptance speech Thursday, Sept 5, 2008 in St. Paul. There must have been some last-minute rewriting, for he had been upstaged by his vice-presidential choice, Sarah Palin. Palin gave a rousing, clearly moral high ground speech the night before, which electrified the audience. I could vote for her, but not for John.

So what does he do? He postures as the ultimate altruist! Since age 17 he has done nothing but public service. This is taken by most to mean taking the high road compared to the rest of us who only work for our own living. To assert that he did none of this for himself but only for country deeply offends me. And what the hell is wrong with private service?

To claim that no time of his working life was spent for his own sake is utterly irrational, it is evil, it is altruistic.

To me the ideal of America is the entrepreneur who creates jobs, the drug researcher who comes up with the new penecillin, the person who works and saves to invest in new ventures, the man or woman who goes to war for the money and believes they are good enough to survive it and fights without pulling punches.

My heroes do not include anyone who sacrifices his or her life for individuals or country. Sacrifice means giving up a greater good for a lesser one. That is irrational.

Altruism is to value someone else as more worthy to live than oneself.

Rational self-interest (the philosophy of Ayn Rand) correctly values oneself and secondly others who are of value.

McCain is selling us a package deal, combining military heroism with the scummy drag of a beast in the gutter demanding admiration for nothing but their need and utter lack of worth.

What has McCain done for me? Has he made government smaller, less costly and less intrusive? Has he created new products? Has he figured out a way of making anything better? Making anything cheaper? Kept foreign enemies from my door? Has he done his best taking care of his own life and his loved ones?

No, he has done none of that. But neither do I believe he has only lived his life for his country. He plans to live a long life. He has, under the premises of our current system, a good plan. If he wins the election he may only be president for four years but will come away with honorable mention in history books and a quite rich retirement, plus gratuities for years of speech-making.

He will also be loved by the political machine that he serves. He worked all his life for a cause.

Why Not For Himself?

Capitalism is the Way

Capitalism is not just a system that works

The government of China acknowledges that the principles of capitalism are required for a nation to do well economically. Russia has recently started to give up collective farming; no this is not 1990. It is fresh news. Russian agriculture is seriously behind in status and progress compared to Russian energy production and others also.

The growth of the populations of capitalist periods in various nations indicates that health and other things required for people to survive and live longer shows it works.

That is not good enough. With that admission you can still practice genocide, tyranny, legalized plunder, and all manner of bad government. You can still have bankers control things and suck the life blood from the economy. Capitalism works so well, that even with the banks doing that, through the ruling of the Federal Reserve, which has power over the U.S. government, pull out seven eighths of our wealth, and we are still better off than ever.

Capitalism is Right

Capitalism will never be allowed to succeed fully it cannot just be promoted because it works. Too many people have already demonstrated that capitalism will not be fully implemented if all you support it with is that it works. It needs to be recognized as the economic and political system that is right, as the only one that is right.

I am, by the way, talking about unfettered laissez faire capitalism. Many would object that capitalism cannot be allowed unless it is under many regulations and laws. I do not argue for a lawless society at all. However, I do argue that one set of laws for us all is sufficient. Laws against murder, bodily harm, fraud, property damage, breaking contracts, etc., ought to be sufficient to apply to all of us, investors, laborers, managers, owners, politicians, soldiers, policemen, judges and cleaning-persons.

Regulations are an illegal, unconstitutional kind of law. All laws are supposed to be created by legislators and congressmen. Most regulations are not. Breaking rules should always involve accusation, trial by evidence, confronting ones accuser in a court of law, resolution of the problem by set rules, objective processes and punishment, preferably making the victim whole through restitution. Breaking rules devised by regulators, however, involves self-reporting, not having clear knowledge beforehand of where the line of good behavior is drawn, and enriching the government rather than restoring the alleged (often missing) victim.

Consumers rely too much on government regulators, to get alleged wrongs done by corporations redressed. Consumer should instead demand (through consumer union type groups) full disclosure of product quality, and file suits when defrauded.

It is Time for Real Capitalism


Endorse full capitalism. Get the businessmen to stop going to Washington for favors. Demand that they stick to business, get out of politics, get out of "community service" and charity work. Just sell good products and services and make a profit. Remember also that your retirement fund does more for you if industry generates good profits.

For more information, go to Capitalism Magazine and Ayn Rand Institute