Is Wealth Redistribution Theft? And Does It Matter?

If you spend any time reading free-market thinkers, you’ll inevitably encounter the argument that wealth redistribution is wrong because it is theft. See, for instance, this recent article by economist Dominick T. Armentano aptly titled “Redistribution Is Theft.”



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1qK4xU6

Enjoy OCON 2014 Remotely By Livestream

If you can’t attend the 2014 Objectivist Summer Conference in Las Vegas, six events will be available online as they happen.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1iKvYNk

Chicago Atlas Shrugged Revolution Dinner Draws 110 Attendees

The Ayn Rand Institute’s third annual Atlas Shrugged Revolution dinner in Chicago earlier this month raised nearly $300,000 to support ARI programs and initiatives in Chicago and around the country.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1lTuFMq

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from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1ispOl1

50 Years of The Virtue of Selfishness

In honor of the 50th anniversary of The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand, the Ayn Rand Institute will be hosting activities such as talks, panel discussions, and book giveaways to draw attention to the top-selling book among Rand’s nonfiction.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/UBnME8

The Myth about Ayn Rand and Social Security

It’s inevitable. Whenever I attack Social Security as an immoral institution that needs to be abolished, someone announces that my arguments are irrelevant because Ayn Rand was a hypocrite who took Social Security.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1nnRaEN

Life Is Not One Huge Hospital

Advocates of universal coverage seek to create a society in which, if you can’t afford health insurance, the government forces others to provide it for you. What is the moral defense for treating some people as slaves to the needs of others?



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1lTWN0Q

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 15]: Matt Kibbe on Political Change

In this episode of the Debt Dialogues, I interview FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe about how the welfare state is drafting young Americans into debt, and how they can effectively fight against it.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1n7OLOs

New Book: RooseveltCare: How Social Security Is Sabotaging the Land of Self-Reliance

I’m happy to announce that that book, RooseveltCare: How Social Security Is Sabotaging the Land of Self-Reliance, is finally available for purchase.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1ltGBV0

Three Campaign Finance Lessons from Dave Brat's Victory

Two weeks ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on whether to amend the First Amendment in response to Citizens United and other campaign finance decisions that allegedly allow the rich to “buy” elections and prevent “ordinary” Americans from being heard.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1vuULqP

The Ayn Rand Factor: Who is David Brat?

David Brat scored an astonishing win over Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, in this week’s Republican primary in Virginia. There’s a lot to say about Brat’s victory, the reaction to it, what that says about the right and the left today, but it’s the Ayn Rand factor that leapt out.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/TQkJHY

The Antitrust Religion: A Conversation with the Author [Podcast Episode #15]

In this episode of Eye to Eye, I sit down with Edwin Rockefeller, author of The Antitrust Religion, to discuss his hard-hitting, top-to-bottom criticism of antitrust law and the “community” of lawyers, regulators, economists, and academics who interpret its mysteries.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1mM6vPc

New Op-ed from ARI’s Steve Simpson: “The Campaign Finance Monster that Refuses To Die”

In his latest op-ed, published on Breitbart.com, ARI’s director of legal studies Steve Simpson argues that campaign finance laws threaten the individual’s right to free speech, because they rest on a severely mistaken view of the meaning of free speech.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1l9i15O

Ski Equipment Firms Yield to Antitrust Pressure

Two makers of ski equipment have caved in to threats from the Federal Trade Commission, partially surrendering their control over two important business decisions: celebrity endorsement contacts and employee hiring.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1mHYMll

ARI News: Media Highlights May 2014

from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1uT8Caa

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 14]: Michael Cannon on Obamacare

In this episode of The Debt Dialogues, I interview the Cato Institute’s director of health policy studies, Michael Cannon, on Obamacare and its effects on young Americans.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1uRMzk3

What Happened to Egypt’s “Arab Spring”?

Egypt has swung from one kind of tyranny (dictatorship) to another (Islamist rule) — and back again. Why?



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1qhXq48

Get Ready for High-Tech Innovators To Be Demonized

In an Economist article called “The coming tech-lash,” columnist Adrian Wooldridge predicts that “one of the big developments of 2014 will be the growing peasants’ revolt against the sovereigns of cyberspace.” According to the article’s subhead, high-tech elites will “join bankers and oilmen in public demonology.”



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1oA5cp4

Elan Journo Reviews Dancing with the Devil in Middle East Quarterly

Can we gain anything by negotiating with our enemies?



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1oA5ex6

The Minimum Wage vs. Reality

Why is the left obsessed with raising the minimum wage?



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1mfAFdo

Packed House for Mossoff Briefing on Patent Reform

The largest audience ever for an Ayn Rand Institute congressional staff briefing gathered yesterday on Capitol Hill to hear Adam Mossoff, professor of law at George Mason University, discuss “The Failure of Patent Reform: Lessons for Next Year.”



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1hg0YUA

Education News Interview: “Steve Simpson on McCutcheon v. FEC”

Steve Simpson, director of legal studies at ARI, was recently interviewed by Education News about the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in McCutcheon v. FEC and other issues relating to campaign finance law and freedom of speech.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1ky5jmJ

Vigilante GMO Gardening?

Gardening seems like the most crime-free activity in the history of mankind. It’s not only slow and relaxing; it’s hard to imagine little old ladies with giant floppy hats getting themselves into any trouble worth being arrested for. But things are not always as they seem in the garden.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1ky5m21

Exhuming Steve Jobs for Antitrust Persecution

“If Steve Jobs were alive today, should he be in jail?” That’s the astonishing opener of a New York Times article attacking Jobs’s reputation posthumously.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1maljH7

Remembering Tiananmen, 25 Years Later

Twenty-five years ago in Tiananmen Square, China’s Communist regime massacred student protesters who sought some measure of greater freedom. Since then, although China’s economy has opened up, the regime continues to muzzle dissidents and labors studiously to make people forget.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1kLlnvx

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 13]: William Voegeli on the Welfare State

In this episode of The Debt Dialogues, I interview Claremont Review of Books senior editor William Voegeli on the question: “Why do people support the welfare state?”



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1nLgyud

Governing Right Out of Atlas Shrugged

Stephen Moore, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, published a hard-hitting op-ed in the Orange County Register over the weekend. It’s a timely follow-up to his viral 2009 Wall Street Journal column drawing parallels between the collapsing economy in Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged and the chaotic world of Washington politics at the height of the financial crisis.



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1oOTlqF

“Consumer Welfare” = Producer Sacrifice

The more you read about antitrust cases, the more you hear that the laws’ goal is to improve “consumer welfare.” And who could be against “consumer welfare”?



from Ayn Rand Institute - Blog http://bit.ly/1onXVZn