Ayn Rand: Must Read Page
I hope there are many readers of my blog who are fans of Ayn Rand. She surely made a whole generation think about money in a more positive light. Of course agreeing with her philosophy of the ‘Art of Selfishness’ is difficult, it is at least a thought.
I do not know whether I am being old fashioned, but it is difficult to see the ‘packagers’ and fixers earning much more than the people who are creating the product. Of course it is the markets which decide whether Lalit Modi should earn more than Sachin Tendulkar, but just because you are a fixer name Jitendra Singh and you find the head of the medical council for fixing you cannot have 4 Mercedes Benz, …and other luxury items worth a few crores in your house. Come on, very few doctors in the country can afford one Merc! MBA education, Financial literacy, becoming a doctor,….need some rating system and the government to just go away from these fields taking their subsidy along with them. Let people pay and get good stuff. Last week I had dinner with a person who is waiting to sell a huge college with lots of land in prime Mumbai. At the price that people are willing to buy it, the fee for becoming a doctor will have to be $ 100,000 + ….so start preparing to pay high fees for your medical requirements!!
Her piece ‘So you think money is the cause of all evil?………..and the few pages following that are of course a classic.
Here I found a link for those fans…and those who are too …..to read the whole book….
drkhann
Subra
What Ayn Rand actually means by selfishness is actually long term rational self interest..
For example, a doctor who wants to prosper has to study hard, spend more time with his patients and be generally nice to them to gain a good reputation.. In the long term he will be prosperous.. This type of prosperity is what she recommends.. Because he is giving value ( competence ) and getting something back in value ( money )..
Now, if society decides that a doctor demanding fees is “selfish ” or ” Greedy ” and refuse to pay for their services,then how many doctors do you think will have the motivation to keep practising..
As for medical education, I think Government regulation has created an artificial shortage of doctors in India.. The government should permit more private medical colleges in a more transparent manner.. And free market and competition will take over to drastically reduce the cost of medical education.. Like the cost of engineering education which has really plummeted, especially in Tamil Nadu.. For, the ACTUAL cost of producing a doctor is really cheap if you do the calculations..
drkhann
We need somebody like Ayn Rand in India to challenge what I call “The Indian socialist consensus ” The strange notion that prevails in India that somehow Socialism and Communism is good and free market Capitalism is bad, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, in spite of millions of deaths in Russia, China and other countries..
Pravin
we had a Dr BR Shenoy -who opposed (alas the sole dissenting voice) the socialist turn the Nehruvian ‘planning commission’ was taking.sad that the sanest voice is always neglected.the philospher Nozick explains why the market is held in contempt by the elite intellectuals everywhere.They feel entitled to greater power,fame and prestige while the market rewards only those who fufill perceived demands in the marketplace.
btw,even though people like Buffet speak of how the rich need to be taxed more -he himself has rationally given all his wealth to Gates -because he knows that Gates will be a better philanthopist than some babu in washington DC.
helping ones fellow human being is not anthithetic(if the word exists) to being driven by self interest.
Sambaran Mitra
Completely agree with drkhann.
Medical costs are a huge concern of mine. I have jotted my thoughts on ‘how to counter it’ at my blog link:
http://oshantomon.blogspot.in/2013/11/coping-with-rising-medical-costs-in.html