What's going on here?

Seriously. Watch the news, read a newspaper. What is happening to this country? We've got two political parties who don't seem to get it (albeit one is worse than the other). What is 'it'? 'It' is the fact that if this country is to be prosperous and come back from the verge of collapse, the government needs to leave individuals alone, in all areas of life. Look at the record of government intervention. Over a century of destructive policies and controls are coming to a point, that if we don't stop it now we're going to end up self-destructing the way many European countries are starting to.

People seem to have lost the idea of individual rights. The rights to Life, Liberty, Property, and the Pursuit of Happiness. These rights that are not given to us, but that we have because we are human beings, that no one can take away. And yet the government is obstructing them more and more, and has been for a long time.

Our rights have been obstructed in the name of the 'public good' and the 'good of society'. But there is no such thing as the 'public' and 'society' in that sense. Society is a collection of individuals, and there are no rights but individual rights. There are no rights of society. There is no public good.

People need to be free to use their minds to the fullest capacity, and they can't if the government is constantly meddling in the economy and in their lives. Only a free economy can be a prosperous economy, and history will attest to that. Under crushing national debt, onerous regulations, taxes, and a butt-load of red tape, how can one be expected to achieve to one's capacity? How can one be happy in one's work when there is constant harassment by government? One can't.

And here is another part of the problem: the assault on self-interest, and the pervasiveness of altruism throughout this country (the USA) and seemingly the world. People seem to think there is something wrong with wanting to make money and wanting to work toward your own happiness without sacrificing to others. My question is: Why? Why is it wrong to want to make money and be rich? Why is it wrong to look out for your own self-interest and to reject self-sacrifice? It isn't wrong. It's the only moral thing to do. Exercise your rights and respect the rights of others. What could be more simple and yet profoundly moral than that? And until people, that is, many people in this country realize that, I'm not sure what's going to happen to the great United States of America. All I can say is, Capitalism or bust.

"I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom." - Ayn Rand

That is what I, as an Objectivist think. If you don't know what Objectivism is, go read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. If you're still interested after those novels then read some of Ayn Rand's (the author of the aforementioned books) nonfiction.

If anyone has suggestions for future posts, let me know.

First Post

Here's a quote to start off:

"Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth." - Ayn Rand

A longer post will come later. This first one was more of a test.