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Ayn Rand killed Sears
Salon ^ | July 18, 2013 | Lynn Stuart Parramore

Posted on 07/23/2013 2:09:29 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo

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To: yldstrk
I always thought Ayn Rand was a complete kook, but everyone else thought she was a goddess.

Don't give up yet. There's still plenty of time to attempt to read her books.

101 posted on 07/23/2013 5:12:34 PM PDT by Misterioso (The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.)
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To: Springfield Reformer
It was ingrained in her, due to her communist upbringing.

Cite, please.

102 posted on 07/23/2013 5:18:58 PM PDT by Misterioso (The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo
The title of this should be "Edward Lampert Killed Sears". Ayn Rand had nothing to do with it.
103 posted on 07/23/2013 5:27:29 PM PDT by Hoodat (BENGHAZI - 4 KILLED, 2 MIA)
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To: steerpike100
Conclusion: . . . Greed is ultimately destructive.

Liberals would know. They are the greediest bastards on the planet, always demanding more and more of my hard-earned income at the point of a gun. And yes, their greed is destructive. Just look at Detroit.

104 posted on 07/23/2013 6:03:55 PM PDT by Hoodat (BENGHAZI - 4 KILLED, 2 MIA)
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To: bagman
(I don’t give Clinton much of the credit for balancing the budget myself.)

You shouldn't, since the budget was never balanced. Another big lie from the Democrat Party. The last time our government did not spend more than it took in was 1957.

105 posted on 07/23/2013 6:07:08 PM PDT by Hoodat (BENGHAZI - 4 KILLED, 2 MIA)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo
Conservatives need to keep this militant atheist’s philosophy at arm’s length.

On the contrary, conservatives need to keep this philosophy in arms reach. With it I can amaze friends and family by predicting what will be on the next days news!

106 posted on 07/23/2013 6:41:52 PM PDT by whodathunkit (DOJ + NSA + IRS = DNI)
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To: Misterioso

No cite available. It appears I had it wrong. At your prodding, I checked out a few biographies, and she apparently came to her atheism in high school in Crimea, about four years before the communists had asserted control, which I believe occurred in 1921. From a look at her literary influences during that period, such as Victor Hugo, she was probably influenced toward atheism more by Enlightenment rationalism than Marx. So it is more that they had some common roots.

In any event, I apologize for the error. I am not sure how I acquired the misconception, but I appreciate your pointing it out to me.


107 posted on 07/23/2013 6:43:45 PM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
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To: Misterioso

still need to reread Witness by Whittaker Chamber, time better spent


108 posted on 07/23/2013 7:42:51 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Springfield Reformer

Apology appreciated. Now if all the other misinformed Rand haters would consider it, that would be progress.


109 posted on 07/23/2013 8:08:22 PM PDT by Misterioso (The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.)
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To: yldstrk

Anyone who was a communist traitor cannot be forgiven.


110 posted on 07/23/2013 8:09:19 PM PDT by Misterioso (The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.)
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To: John S Mosby
I was in outside wholesale sales and sales support for 35 years. I observed much of what you described. I met some of the old execs that ran O. Ames, Black & Decker, Gates Rubber, etc.

In that 35 years I worked for 2 privately held family owned companies. Both were fine organizations.

I saw what happened with the advent of the early LBO’s and then the “acquire/downsize” model of business. No one built anything, just rearranged the pieces and shed a lot of employees and customers. In the long run, that stopped working.

The contributing factor that is never mentioned is the tax rate. When the Reagan administration reduced the top corporate rate (and it needed to be reduced) from 72% to 27% (rough numbers that I remember) there was an explosion of growth. Before it was insanity to make large profits, because you simply gave it to the Feds in the form of income tax. So the model that they pursued was to build the best possible organization and solid growth. The win was in capital gains, not in operating profit. After the tax cut the green eyeshade bean counters said this is nuts, we simply cut the employees in 1/2 and all that money drops to the bottoms line. It worked, the first time, less well the 2nd time, poorer still the 3rd time. Eventually there was no fat to cut and it destroyed the business growth and the companies found themselves in trouble.

Almost all industries practiced some form of this.

But with Obozo boosting the regulation and BS to comply with it is much much worse. The trainwreck approaches.

111 posted on 07/23/2013 8:24:32 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
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To: Misterioso

He saw the light, changed and then turned in the Commie traitors


112 posted on 07/23/2013 8:32:10 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Ayn Rand’s “Capitalism, the untried ideal” is a very good book.

I have never liked Rand’s nature. I do not think it is necessary. But her rebellion to compulsion is another matter. I totally agree with that part of her make up.


113 posted on 07/23/2013 8:37:11 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
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To: Misterioso

Well, my repulsion toward Rand is not based on when she acquired her atheism, which is a relatively minor historical detail, but that she did espouse atheism, and integrated it into her philosophical system. As I said before, if she comes to certain natural law realizations with which theistic conservatives agree, that’s great. But like Marx, she regarded faith as an enemy to reason, and debilitating to human psychological processes, which is, coincidentally or not, perfectly aligned with the attitude of the old soviet communists, and their modern leftist counterparts, that people of faith are mentally ill. That is not a matter of speculation, and it is due cause to treat her overarching philosophy with considerable caution. That is not hatred. That’s just good sense.


114 posted on 07/23/2013 8:48:21 PM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
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To: yldstrk

How many perished at the hands of Stalin thanks to WC’s help?
No sympathy.


115 posted on 07/24/2013 1:12:25 AM PDT by Misterioso (The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

Blaming Ayn Rand for a poorly run conglomerate is ridiculous. I’m not keen non her writing style and she argues the best of positions to extremes, but the fundamental truths that she conveyed are not discredited by one corporate raider.


116 posted on 07/24/2013 2:04:03 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Buckeye McFrog
Trashing and discrediting Ayn Rand is high on the Lefist To-Do List

Conservatives are under no obligation to worship Ayn Rand. Rand has about as much credibility as Anton Lavey or Ragnar Readbeard. And about as much relevance too.

117 posted on 07/24/2013 3:09:26 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
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To: Misterioso

It is still a very eye opening book. but you have a point I never thought of.

one of the points in his book is that for a large segment of the population, you can just fall into it without being cognizant of what you are embracing


118 posted on 07/24/2013 3:36:56 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: steerpike100; All
you post: “This is pure leftist commie pap.”

Totally.

For those who didn't/don't need to be ‘educated’ on the realities by having them candy-wrapped in exciting novels there is Rands: “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.”

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article3290.html

postscript: Sears started falling apart long before the Internet when they abandoned what had built them: the one big biannual catalog with everything in it to the plethora of small catalogs that choked your mailbox every week - that highlighted only a few items each. That one big catalog was like Amazon on paper - A one source shopping list. Then they got behind the curve with the advent of the Internet...and never caught up.

119 posted on 07/24/2013 9:03:36 AM PDT by maine-iac7 (Christian is as Christian does - by their fruits)
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