The CARES Act has created a moral dilemma for those Americans who value freedom. The pandemic has cost them their jobs, their savings, their businesses. And they blame a significant part of this loss on the government. But because they oppose government handouts, they worry that accepting CARES money would be a breach of integrity.
At the Ayn Rand Institute, we are dedicated to philosophic principle. And because we are, we will take any relief money offered us. We will take it unapologetically, because the principle here is: justice.
To see why, focus on a fact that everyone seems determined not to know: government has no wealth of its own. Private philanthropists like Jeff Bezos and the Bill Gates Foundation can and do own wealth that they give in charity. But the government has no funds of its own. It can only redistribute the wealth of others. Government cannot provide help, it can only force others to provide it.
What the government would giveth, the government must first taketh away.
The $2.3 trillion in relief going to some people means $2.3 trillion ultimately drained from savings their own and the savings of others. The government doesnt run farms or factories. Its not a producer. Thus rather than being mesmerized by its shower of checks and paper dollars, consider the actual goods and services the government funds will be spent on.
Take eggs as the symbol. You can spend the newly created money to buy a dozen eggs, but the government is not adding to the egg supply, only to the supply of dollars. The government has no hens; but the Treasurys Bureau of Printing and Engraving does have printing presses. And the Fed has more sophisticated means of inflating the supply of money and credit. The effect of that new money created out of thin air entering the economy will be to put upward pressure on the price of eggs, and disrupt the price system that helps coordinate all business activity.
If ARI gets government relief money, it will be, for us, partial restitution for government-inflicted losses.
Austrian economics teaches that inflation enriches those who get the new money first at the expense of impoverishing those who get it later, after prices have been bid up. Inflation is not neutral: it benefits some by victimizing others.
For advocates of freedom, individual rights, and limited government to turn down these relief funds means choosing to play only the victims role in the governments bizarre game of loot and be looted. Embracing victimhood doesnt show integrity, only submissiveness. The times call not for timid deference but confident self-assertion.
It would be a terrible injustice for pro-capitalists to step aside and leave the funds to those indifferent or actively hostile to capitalism. It is anti-capitalist, statist polices that have turned this nature-made storm into a made-in-DC cataclysm.
Americas unpreparedness, the slowness of our response, and the byzantine maze of regulations now blocking the production and sale of new tests and new treatments are the tragic legacy of this nations century-long descent from capitalism into the entitlement-regulatory state.
As is well known, but seldom publicized, the growth of state power has enmeshed doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and biomedical firms in an ever-tightening web of regulations. Their every move is held suspect. Commercial test developers were prevented from getting early access to samples of the novel coronavirus, while the government bungled its own testing. Even when private hospitals want to add more hospital beds, they have to plead with government overlords for permission to do so.
And now weve seen what statism means for the general population: the placing of the entire nation under house arrest.
READ ALSO: Is It Moral to Accept Government Money During Covid-19?
You cant achieve the good of all by robbing everyone and then distributing the booty to some.
In this context, it would be morally wrong for pro-capitalists to humbly step aside and watch the new money go only to anti-capitalists. That would turn justice upside down.
Ayn Rand wrote an article arguing that it is proper to take government money from programs like Social Security and unemployment insurance on the condition that the recipient regards it as restitution and opposes all forms of welfare-statism. Those who support such government handouts, she added, have no right to them; those who oppose them have. If this sounds like a paradox, the fault lies in the moral contradictions of welfare statism, not in its victims.
She based her position on this trenchant analysis of statism:
Since there is no such thing as the right of some men to vote away the rights of others, and no such thing as the right of the government to seize the property of some men for the unearned benefit of othersthe advocates and supporters of the welfare state are morally guilty of robbing their opponents, and the fact that the robbery is legalized makes it morally worse, not better. The victims do not have to add self-inflicted martyrdom to the injury done to them by others; they do not have to let the looters profit doubly, by letting them distribute the money exclusively to the parasites who clamored for it. Whenever the welfare-state laws offer them some small restitution, the victims should take it.
The $2.3 trillion emergency stimulus will be paid for by extracting wealth from everyone, including the Ayn Rand Institute and its contributors, many of whom have already been damaged financially. Since raising taxes is not politically viable, the stimulus will be paid for by deficit financing a euphemism for raiding everyones savings.
If ARI gets government relief money, it will be, for us, partial restitution for government-inflicted losses.
Our contributors need to be sure that such payments wont function as bribes, weakening our dedication to laissez-faire capitalism and softening our denunciations of statism. But they need not worry. Our whole reason for being is to promote not just the political ideal of laissez-faire capitalism or the moral ideal of rational selfishness. Rather, our defining mission is to promote the entire, integrated, philosophic system that Ayn Rand created: Objectivism.
Whether or not ARI receives some restitution for damages suffered, that is not about to change.
SUPPORT ARI: If you value the ideas presented here, please become an ARI Member today.
Share this article:
Original post:
To Take or Not to Take - New Ideal
- Voices for Reason Blog | The Ayn Rand Institute - December 9th, 2016 [December 9th, 2016]
- Media, morality and the neighbors cow: When did Ayn Rand become the ... - December 14th, 2016 [December 14th, 2016]
- How Ayn Rands theories destroyed Never Trump conservatism - December 14th, 2016 [December 14th, 2016]
- Ayn Rand's Progressive Readers are Misguided | National Review - December 14th, 2016 [December 14th, 2016]
- The Daily 202: Ayn Rand-acolyte Donald Trump stacks his cabinet with ... - December 14th, 2016 [December 14th, 2016]
- The scary ghost of Ayn Rand looms over the Trump cabinet - December 18th, 2016 [December 18th, 2016]
- Fountainhead of bad ideas: Ayn Rands fanboys take the reins ... - December 18th, 2016 [December 18th, 2016]
- Ayn Rand Institute eStore : Ayn Rand - January 11th, 2017 [January 11th, 2017]
- Ayn Rand Made US a Selfish, Greedy Nation - January 20th, 2017 [January 20th, 2017]
- Ayn Rand and the Invincible Cult of Selfishness on the ... - January 24th, 2017 [January 24th, 2017]
- The Ayn Rand scene Sajid Javid reads every year - Spectator.co.uk - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- The Ayn Rand in Donald Trump: The Virtue of America First | The ... - American Spectator - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Would Ayn Rand Have Cast President Trump As A Villain? | Zero ... - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Jerome Tuccille, Author of It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand and More, RIP - Reason (blog) - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Ayn Rand Contra Nietzsche - The Objective Standard - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Judging Milo Yiannopoulos, ft. Ayn Rand (Episode #24 of MY PODCAST) - ChicagoNow (blog) - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- How Much Ayn Rand Is There in Trump's 'America First' Foreign ... - American Spectator - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Who Is Ayn Rand? - The Objective Standard - The Objective Standard - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Cheer Up, Justin Amash! There's No Need to Cry Over One Missed Vote. - Slate Magazine (blog) - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- No sympathy: How Ayn Rand's elitism lives on in the Trump ... - Salon - Salon - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- How Ayn Rand's 'elitism' lives on in the Donald Trump ... - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Mick Mulvaney's snake oil: A blend of bad science, bad math and really bad politics - Salon - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Make the magic money tree work for everyone, not just the rich - The Guardian - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Neo-Tech Views On Ayn Rand and Objectivism | Good Herald - Good Herald - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Elate's Revival of Ayn Rand's NIGHT OF JANUARY 16TH Opens 6/3 - Broadway World - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Is Germany Blowing It? - The Awl - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Letter: Deregulation is not always best - Aiken Standard - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- How the Dark Web's Dread Pirate Roberts Went Down - New York Times - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- Trump's Credibility Problem - National Review - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- Trump & Ryan's (Tryan's) Co-Conspiracy in Moral Bankruptcy - The Good Men Project (blog) - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- Shall we all hang separately? - Nevada Appeal - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- PBS Is Airing Right-Wing-Sponsored School Privatization Propaganda - The National Memo (blog) - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- South Fayette educator and coach has the music in him - Observer-Reporter - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Tech Talk: Israel's Fortune 500 companies - The Jerusalem Post - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- The Fountainhead: American Eclectic - Patheos (blog) - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- NY Times, After 'Corrections,' Still Has Palin-Giffords 'Targeting' Myth in Scalise Shooting Editorial - NewsBusters (press release) (blog) - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- Both parties responsible for economic failings - Alpena News - June 18th, 2017 [June 18th, 2017]
- Wayne LaPierre, Tomi Lahren, and a Rally Cry From Young Conservative Women - D Magazine - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Goodbye Reason, Hello Violence - Townhall - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Selfie by Will Storr review are the young really so self-obsessed? - The Guardian - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- If You Saw Uber's CEO Testify Before the DC Council, His Downfall May Come as No Surprise - HuffPost - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Working toward graduation: 50 SPS students participate in credit recovery program - Stillwater News Press - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Ayn Rand | American author | Britannica.com - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Travis Kalanick may have resigned as Uber's CEO but he isn't going away - Washington Post - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- 'Fargo' Season 3 finale recap: A mostly satisfying, but ambiguous ending - Baltimore Sun - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- London Theater Review: Topical Drama 'Terror' - Variety - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Paul Ryan conflicted by Jesus Christ and Ayn Rand -- Norman Jensen - Madison.com - June 24th, 2017 [June 24th, 2017]
- BOB BARR: Goodbye reason, Hello violence - MDJOnline.com - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- Lowell Thomas, the Original 'Voice of America' - The Weekly Standard - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- This Classic Colonial Revival in Westchester Has Impressive Literary Ties - Mansion Global - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- The Continuing Scourge of Tenant Harassment: If You Don't Like It, Move. - The Nonprofit Quarterly (registration) - June 27th, 2017 [June 27th, 2017]
- The least of these - Ashland Daily Press - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- Why can't self-satisfied liberals admit that conservatives care about people, too? - The Week Magazine - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- Letter: Things aren't going so well under President Trump - Detroit Lakes Online - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- J. Talbot Manvel: Declaration of Independence joined morality and law - CapitalGazette.com - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- I watched the sun set on my Sunset Boulevard romance - Los Angeles Times - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- Republican states raising taxes, not lowering them | The Seattle Times - The Seattle Times - July 3rd, 2017 [July 3rd, 2017]
- Takers and Fakers - New York Times (blog) - July 14th, 2017 [July 14th, 2017]
- BOB BARR: Violent tribalism on display in Charlottesville - MDJOnline.com - August 24th, 2017 [August 24th, 2017]
- Is There Really an 'Insidious Libertarian-To-Alt-Right Pipeline'? - Reason (blog) - August 24th, 2017 [August 24th, 2017]
- 30 important life lessons Dirty Dancing taught us - EW.com - August 24th, 2017 [August 24th, 2017]
- Ayn Rand - Salon.com - August 24th, 2017 [August 24th, 2017]
- Anthem Essay Contest Ayn Rand Education - August 24th, 2017 [August 24th, 2017]
- What's Wrong With America? - Falls Church News Press - August 25th, 2017 [August 25th, 2017]
- Why Stephen K. Bannon was such a failure - The Washington Post - Washington Post - August 25th, 2017 [August 25th, 2017]
- Movie Review: In Pattinson, 'Twilight' sidles up to Ratso Rizzo - The Providence Journal - August 25th, 2017 [August 25th, 2017]
- Why Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary read Ayn Rand - January 29th, 2018 [January 29th, 2018]
- How Hillary Clinton Is Like Ayn Rand | The Weekly Standard - March 16th, 2018 [March 16th, 2018]
- Ayn Rand's Ideas - An Overview | AynRand.org - June 23rd, 2018 [June 23rd, 2018]
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, Paperback | Barnes & Noble - July 16th, 2018 [July 16th, 2018]
- In Defense of Ayn Rand, Monster Under the Progressive Bed - July 21st, 2018 [July 21st, 2018]
- Ayn Rand Institute eStore - September 6th, 2018 [September 6th, 2018]
- Ayn Rand, Objectivism - The Atlas Society - November 23rd, 2018 [November 23rd, 2018]
- Here's how Ayn Rand helped turn the US into a selfish and ... - November 27th, 2018 [November 27th, 2018]
- Is There a Proof of Ayn Rand's Ethics? - November 27th, 2018 [November 27th, 2018]
- Ayn Rand raged against government benefits but grabbed ... - November 29th, 2018 [November 29th, 2018]
- President Obama Jabs At Ayn Rand, Knocks Himself Out - December 9th, 2018 [December 9th, 2018]
- Column: This is what happens when you take Ayn Rand seriously ... - February 16th, 2019 [February 16th, 2019]
- Ayn Rand - The New York Times - March 25th, 2019 [March 25th, 2019]
- Atlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition) by Ayn Rand, Paperback ... - March 25th, 2019 [March 25th, 2019]