Economics in 8 1/2 Minutes

This video is entitled "This Is John Galt Speaking..., Pt. 10,", alluding to a speech given by the character John Galt in the novel Atlas Shrugged.

This video is made by "XCowboy2," a.k.a., Richard Gleaves.

You can learn more about economic principles from this video than you can in many college economics classes.

Evil is the Root of Evil

I grew up hearing that “money is the root of all evil.” If only there were no dollar signs, people wouldn’t murder, wouldn’t steal, wouldn’t commit fraud and wouldn’t cheat their way to success. What a lie! If anything, money has made these things easier to do as it has with everyday activities in the marketplace. Whether we have money or not, a stealer will steal and a murderer will murder.

If the notion that money is evil was simply an innocent mistake on the part of its adherents than that “sin” could be forgivable. However, it appears some push this baseless slogan as a way of disarming people of ownership over their property, over their money. What better way to take what you have not earned than to make those who have earned it feel guilty about owning it in the first place.

You have not stolen anything in the private sector as long as the market is open to anyone who can offer a lower price or better quality. If someone says you charge too much, then please tell that person to open up a shop and show us how to charge a lower price.

Defend your keep that you have earned through an honest day of hard work. To feel guilty for a sin that you have not committed is the greatest evil of them all.

Goodbye Apathy

In The Matrix, Morpheus advised, "Free your mind."

One way to do that is to read an excellent book like this one.

Here is a video made by Casey Smith.

Aside from the satire about scholarships, the film doesn't have much in the way of political-economic commentary. However, it points the viewer toward something full of insight about society.

My One Complaint About 'Atlas Shrugged'

Stuart K. Hayashi

Note: Another version of this previously appeared in The Fiftieth Star. See here. --S.H.


February 2, 2007, marks 102 years to the day of Ayn Rand's birth. That day of the month is of particular importance in American culture because, every February 2, if a politician crawls out of his hole and sees his shadow, we will have 60 more years of the welfare state.

As for Miss Rand's magnum opus, I enjoyed every syllable on each of the 1,087 pages of the paperback edition I read. The prose sparked vivid images that made me feel as if I were gazing upon an exquisite painting.

I was so enthralled by the grandeur of it all that I was quite sad to see it eventually come to an end.

And so I have only one complaint about Atlas Shrugged:

It was too short.