Germany, in the 20's. The mark was worthless. If you consider the Federal Reserve note today, it is just as worthless, our entire world economic system is based on non-existent values such as GDP and debt to income. If the "world" loses faith in the dollar, we will be able to light smokes with 100 dollar bills. The yuan is floating because they artificially supported it to the point it went against them, so they are letting it fall to try to regenerate trade, all part of the manipulation we call "currency".

Ayn Rand in her 1964 Playboy interview: My
views on charity are very simple. I do not consider it a major virtue and, above all, do not consider it a moral duty. There is nothing wrong in helping other people, if and when they are worthy of the help and you can afford to help them. I regard charity as a
marginal issue. What I am fighting is the idea
that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue. Right on!

It's 1945, the year WW2 ended. I was 11. The local movie house matinee was 10 cents. 25 cents after 6 pm. Downtown first run theaters, matinee was 50 cents, $1 after 6 pm. A double dip ice cream cone at the local malt shop was 10 cents. Gasoline was 20 to 25 cents a gallon. You could drive all day on a dollar. When my mom felt like splurging and took me out to dinner and a movie, the dinner cost $1.50 for both of us. Double that at a fancy downtown restaurant. Compare that to today's prices and tell me how much longer until it is Venezuela?

objectivism is not against somebody doing something charitable by design. a perceived fault is not a real fault, objectivism has no faults that i am aware of.

I just say, "No. But thank you for giving me the opportunity." in a formally polite but firm tone of voice. And I look them directly in the eyes. Then they look down and bag my grocs.

Jan

If you define altruism that comprehensively, then it has nothing positive about it. But that is not the usual use of the word. By making it clear that it is OK to voluntarily donate something to charity, we remove one of the generally perceived faults of Objectivism.

Jan

One correction. It use to be 1/3 as much cost, but it is more like 1/2 the cost today.

The other interesting thing on that to me is that they seem to teach more in concepts and let people develop their own ideas in fact. Where as we teach facts. This would have caused me to have the opposite view before dealing with it.

I read a study at one point where they took pictures of say a tiger in a meadow, a tiger in a forest, a bear in the same meadow and a bear in the same forest. When shown two of the pictures for just a second back to back Asians would recognize them as different if the background changed, western society would recognize they were different when the animal, or center of the picture changed. Only about 10% in both groups recognized them as different all the time. What this says is that Asians look a the full picture and work into the details. Western culture looks at the center detail and work out from there.

It may have some bearing on this issue. Asians are looking at the whole picture as it is. When the whole picture is in view and defined in your mind it is much harder to jump over to another picture in your mind. Much easier to describe the picture you currently see and deal with it. This also would explain to some degree the unwillingness to act without full informaiton.

We Americans tend to focus on a few key points and ignore the rest. That leaves a lot of creative room that is undefined in our minds. It also allows us to act more quickly.

It is an interesting study on perception and may have something to do with this creativity issue as well.

I agree with you regarding altruism as enfoorced by the government. Additionally, what I am saying is that altruism shoved down our throats by others is not that easy to "walk away" from. Similar to sexual harrassment, it is not physical force, so you really can't smack them in mouth (try doing that to a WalMart cashier who asks you to donate to their children's fund, for the 27th time!), but is unwelcome and annoying - e.g., harrassment. I think that "harrassment" is exactly the term that we should be using to combat this culture. Just maybe, it could stop an idiot and make that idiot think for a second, maybe.

that is not a good analogy. you can always smack someone in the mouth that attempts sexual harassment. you can't hit the government.
much easier to turn the other cheek and walk away.

Looking around my cardboard box as we speak! Hmm. Thanks for great chuckle!

I have had similar experience. Attracted by lower cost firm moved much development there. I managed a short fuse proof of concept project that failed, due to creative innovation required. I recall curious progress meetings that were extremely polite. Regards.

Think of it as similar to sexual harrassment. You don't ask for it, you don't want it, but it's here. Why should you endure it?

That had been my impression, but I wanted to check that against someone who had actually "been there and done that".

It's interesting that in the face of people who are clearly very bright and very hard working we still seem to lead in creativity and innovation.

you do not have to join them.

Forced altruism doesn't come from the government only. There are many ways that it can be forced and showed down the throats of all but the strongest willed people. When we walk into a store and asked to donate, or attacked even before we get into a store, the constant ads for donations, school and work pressure - we have become a culture of beggars! The sickness has permeated everywhere.

As usual, you hit the nail on the head. In Acts chapter 5, the apostles never said that money freely given for the poor should go to Rome to be distributed.

When you can get more heat burning money than from the wood you could buy with it you know you are in serious trouble.

altruism; the basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value... which means: the self as a standard of evil, the selfless as a standard of the good.
AR, "Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World" PWNI, 61

Reminds me of a picture I saw in a history book, of a man wheeling a barrow-full of money to the local baker to buy a loaf of bread.

there's a bar on Jekyll with just that -- dollars signed by
the customers papering the walls!!! -- j
.

Several of the companies I have worked for over the last 15 years did partial India Labor. I have some conditions that they are great for, and some they are not so great for.

You will get more work out of India for about 1/3 the money. However they are not typically creative thinkers and the product plans and software design documents need to be exceptionally well thought out. They will write the code exactly as specified.

This brings to the two kinds of conditions underwhich development in India has worked well.
1) software design documents are very highly detailed and no creative thinking will be involved with writing the code.
2) they are maintaining your previous version, fixing bugs and doing minor updates to keep it alive while your company still supports it.

If on the other hand you want creative innovation keep the coding that needs this in your stateside teams.

For years when the "Hire programmers in India" emails have appeared in my inbox, I've clicked delete with the same rapidity as I did those offering to increase my breast size. Lately, though, I've been looking at them longer (not the breast size ones).

So apparently you do this and find it useful. How do you manage a team in India? What level of specifications do you need?

I will say that the times I have had a programmer from here working in Malaysia temporarily the ability to have work going on over a significant portion of 24 hours has been pretty amazing.

IMO if you do help others out of a sense of duty or through a method of force (taxes for welfare) all the real and long term benefits for both the giver of aid and the receiver are lost.

All that is left is a begrudging giver and a entitled receiver. Both are less civil as a result and this creates a cyclic loss of civility within a society.

I remember when I was in undergraduate college, I and my roommate were really working hard to do as well and to learn as much as possible. He was a physics major and I was a geology major.

We each calculated what we called the efficiency quotient - the amount of time in the day that we each spent studying divided by the time available for studying. Carefully applying allotted times for meals and by mutual consent - an 11:00 PM break for some popcorn we would make and sit back and enjoy.