Ayn Rand;'s Atlas Shrugged : The Money Speech

[Y_Participant 4591]

Hello again friends.

From time to time I’ve asked – and been asked – ‘Why is the knowledge of money so important? Is it not evil?’ – as I have been told by so many in my youth.

They say ‘Those who study such things are bad men and cheats – best have nothing to do with the subject or those people.’

Today – I cannot disagree any more vehemently. We have all been kept in the dark about REAL money for only one reason – to blind us to see how our honestly earned wealth is being stolen from us day-by-day in the form of a cheap imposter – fiat currency.

I posted this piece some time ago. Ayn Rand wrote a masterpiece – ‘Atlas Shrugged’. In it is a masterpiece within a masterpiece – Fransisco’s Money Speech. It tells exactly why money is the foundation of every honest man’s labour – and enlightens the world that maximum prosperity can only be achieved through individual freedom, free markets, and sound money.

Mike Maloney reads the full text in the video below. (Mike is dyslexic so apologies if he is not fully fluid with the text.) I have added a text version below as well

I hope you like it. It will always be an inspiration for me.
I would like to end with a favourite quote from the speech

“Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other–and your time is running out.”

http://capitalismmagazine.com/2002/08/franciscos-money-speech/

[BlacqueJacqueShellacqueParticipant 6890]

One of my favorite books. An awesome speech.

[BlacqueJacqueShellacqueParticipant 6890]

Y_ wrote:

‘Atlas Shrugs’.

“ATLAS SHRUGGED”

😉

[Y_Participant 4591]

Thanks – done

[PistolPeteParticipant 27143]

Good point Yumbo. Many of my Christian fellows misunderstand the concept. They point to the Biblical references: “Money is the root of all evil”, and Jesus chasing the money changers out of the temple etc. to support the claim money is bad bad bad.

I’ve tried desperately to educate my distraught Christian brothers. When I was younger and told “Money is the root of all evil” my answer was GREAT hand me a shovel and lets get digging. They don’t get that money is not evil; it is simply a tool, a means to an end. However lusting after money, or making money the sole purpose of one’s life IS evil. Often my Friends can’t see the distinction even when I give them simple examples like:

I take a pen and write G-D D-mn this or that. IS the pen evil? Or IS what I DID with the pen evil?

Yumbo my friend we’ll just have to keep hammering away.

[BlacqueJacqueShellacqueParticipant 6890]

PistolPete wrote:

“Money is the root of all evil”

I always thought it was “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil.” Think Rothchild’s.

[DorkShitParticipant 4353]

+1000

So simple. I have to reevaluate her writings as I age because she wasn’t a writer. She was a philosopher.

Peace brothers

[FrankOneParticipant 1417]

I read Rand as a teenager, but it’s great to listen to her words.

I love the stark, absolutist terms she uses — ‘moochers’ and ‘looters’.

Money is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

I often refer to political appointments as ‘henchmen’ and ‘henchwomen’ rather than ‘cabinet’ or ‘director’ or ‘chairman of the Fed’. Rand brings a very different mindset to the issues of the day — just like Austrian Economics.

Atlas keeps shrugging. We know how far Atlas has shrugged by one simple metric: The percent of GDP that comprises the sum total of government. When people talk about how ‘America is a free country’, I tell them, well, it was a LOT freer 100 years ago in many respects — in some respects, it IS freer now — e.g. minorities enjoy equal rights AND we enjoy civil liberties if not economic ones.

If they keep balking at your responses, ask them what tax levels were when we revolted against the Brits!

[Y_Participant 4591]

Thanks PP and all for your responses and continued support.

Yes PP we will keep doing that. No retreat no surrender.

[Author]

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