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Comment by krferriter | Hacker News Reader

Absolutely not. They are not broadly experts, and they are not making these decisions after careful consideration, as evidenced by their continual acts of stupidity and basic errors and cutting things despite having no idea what it is they are cutting. Musk got in an argument with someone who said DOGE cut funding for a cancer treatment program, and Musk was calling the person a liar, and the person provided evidence and Musk admitted it was an accident. They are a clown car of idiots who vastly overestimate their own knowledge and underestimate how much good the government actually does. They think they can just slash and burn and there will be no negative consequences because they think the government is worthless.

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Until, like Ayn Rand, they actually need the government. Then they'll be complaining how the government doesn't provide services.

My knowledge of Ayn Rand stops at having read a book (and considered it silly), when did she need the government and complained about it?

She was an Objectivist. She considered social security to be "legalized plunder". Then when she needed it, she decided to take it.

One of her wonderful worldviews was to rejects altruism as a moral imperative, arguing that individuals should live for their own rational self-interest. Social security, based on the idea of supporting others, contradicts this principle.

It takes strong and complex social glue to create a place where millions can safely follow their own self-interest.

Which means anyone whose wisdom matches their self-interest is going to understand that different things have very different efficiencies at different scales.

And some things happen to be dramatically more efficient/person and more effective, the larger the scale they can be coordinated at.

>It takes strong and complex social glue to create a place where millions can safely follow their own self-interest.

This exactly. All of these people who profess to believe in objectivism could easily move to a failed state and do anything they want to with zero government intervention. But they don't do that. They want all of the benefits of a working government with none of the things required to actually create a working government.

Side note: if they wait a little bit, they may end up not needing to move anywhere after all.

It is in your self interest to have a strong social safety net, because one day you might need it too.

Also, even if you don't need it yourself, it's far nicer to live in a society where people's basic needs can be met otherwise we end up living in some kind of Mad Max apocalyptic wasteland where people with nothing and nothing to lose roam the country looking for targets.

> One of her wonderful worldviews was to rejects altruism as a moral imperative, arguing that individuals should live for their own rational self-interest. Social security, based on the idea of supporting others, contradicts this principle.

This position was already pointed out by Plato (in the Gorgias IIRC) as being inconsistent. Political systems are made up by people - if a society, in particular a democratic one, has certain systems in place, then this is probably because it was (at least believed to be) in the people's self interest.

I don't see altruism as being outside of my own self-interest. I think that you get what you give, so having to give up some money to the public good is OK (usually not awesome, but OK).

What's funny, and it might be because of the translation, but I first thought her book where all entrepreneurs are hidden away in a sort of parallel country was a dystopian satire and a joke about some people sense of self importance. Then I learned about her (and when the book was written too) and realised her book was to be read as it was written, 'seriously'. Which makes it silly, but a funny story.

Medicare and social security after a lung cancer diagnosis (from being a heavy smoker)

https://www.openculture.com/2016/12/when-ayn-rand-collected-...

Sorry, I really should have said "experts" with the rabbit ears. But it still reeks.

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