Rational Self-Interest - eviltoast
  • Draces@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    However she CAN, but doesn’t have to, use social security for get benefit.

    If she did not take it when it benefited her, that would have been hypocritical. She was acting selfishly and taking the money she could. In fact she HAS TO in order to be acting in her own self interest. Are you arguing that taking social security when you can is not in your self interest? If she had been saying not to take social security until that point that also would have been hypocritical (afaik that was not what she was saying but I can’t find anything definitive, her arguments were generally just anti tax and now I’ve ruined my search history). Saying that social security shouldn’t exist and that it is immoral to force people to pay into it and all that other bs rhetoric is not against the people taking social security, it’s for the government taking taxes for these programs in an effort to end the program.

    as that’s the world around them

    Exactly. But just like the socialist that is operating in the society they’re in with the beliefs they have, Ayn Rand was operating in RSI when she took social security because it was available. This is irony. This is disgusting. This shows how her beliefs are bad and wrong. It shows how the right wingers can act against their own interests. But this is not hypocrisy. I can still believe gambling at a casino is a good money making venture even when I go broke gambling, I’m not a hypocrite, I’m just dumb. Ayn Rand can still believe social security is immoral even as she takes money from it, she’s just dumb.

    • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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      16 hours ago

      When one speaks of man’s right to exist for his own sake, for his own rational self-interest, most people assume automatically that this means his right to sacrifice others. Such an assumption is a confession of their own belief that to injure, enslave, rob or murder others is in man’s self-interest—which he must selflessly renounce.

      Acting in self interest is supposed to be without the sacrifice of others.

      Observe that any social movement which begins by “redistributing” income, ends up by distributing sacrifices.

      She views any kind of redistribution of wealth (including social security) as something that causes people to sacrifice something.

      Her own words show that taking social security is not in line with acting in your self-interest because taking social security is sacrificing others.

      • Draces@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        I’ll ask again, are you arguing that taking social security when you can is not in your self interest? The system doesn’t go away if you don’t take it and you’ve already paid into it. The wealth is already being redistributed and going to be redistributed. She is still going to have pay into the system if she lives. Not her decision for it to exist or pay into it. The decision is to take the money or don’t. Which is the decision that is self interested?

        • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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          14 hours ago

          I’ll ask again, are you arguing that taking social security when you can is not in your self interest?

          Yes. That is exactly what Ayn Rand is saying.

          The system doesn’t go away if you don’t take it and you’ve already paid into it.

          And? Paying into it shouldn’t change your ideological stance. Or is a vegan allowed to eat meat if they pay to eat at an all you can eat restaurant that serves meat? After all they’ve already paid for the meat.

          She is still going to have pay into the system if she lives. Not her decision for it to exist or pay into it.

          Yes, she is being forced to participate in the system the same way socialists are forced to participate in a capitalist system. Nobody is calling her a hypocrite for paying taxes.

          The decision is to take the money or don’t. Which is the decision that is self interested?

          According to Rand. A decision made with rational self-interest is a decision that can’t sacrifice others and any redistribution of income is a distribution of sacrifice. That means any action in the redistribution process is not compatible with rational self-interest, because the process itself is sacrificing others. She gets a free pass on paying taxes because that participation is forced upon her. She doesn’t get a free pass on taking out social security because now she chose to participate in a process that is sacrificing others. Rational self-interest doesn’t justify her decision because she is choosing to sacrifice others.

          • Draces@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            According to Rand. A decision made with rational self-interest is a decision that can’t sacrifice others and any redistribution of income is a distribution of sacrifice

            That is just not true. You can’t reinterpret and stretch a quote to make it defy very simple logic and completely dismisses and leave unaddressed that she did not control those systems and already was forced to pay into. You don’t think taking money you’re entitled to, that you’ve already paid into, is in your self interest. That is literally what those words mean. It is in your self interest to collect on a system you paid into. Full stop. You are completely unreasonable if we can’t agree on that

            • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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              6 hours ago

              I can’t use her own words to show how she’s a hypocrite? My bad, I thought we were having a honest discussion. Go enjoy your successful defense of Ayn Rand and her ideology because I’m fucking done with you.

                • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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                  5 hours ago

                  By deliberately ignoring the meaning given by the author of the term and instead making up your own definition that suits your argument? Such a crusader for correct meanings.

                  • Draces@lemmy.world
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                    5 hours ago

                    When one speaks of man’s right to exist for his own sake, for his own rational self-interest, most people assume automatically that this means his right to sacrifice others. Such an assumption is a confession of their own belief that to injure, enslave, rob or murder others is in man’s self-interest—which he must selflessly renounce.

                    This is a critique of social security as a program it says nothing about what someone who has already paid into the system should do. They were already “robbed”. Taking money you’re entitled to is rational self interested. That’s just what those words mean.

                    Go enjoy your successful defense of Ayn Rand and her ideology

                    Like how I called her dumb immoral and wrong over and over again? And you think you’re trying to have an honest conversation?

                    I’m fucking done with you.

                    I wonder what you think this means. You seem to struggle with what words mean