John Galt - The Trader The symbol of all relationships among such men, the moral symbol of respect for human beings, is the trader. We, who live by values, not by loot, are traders, both in manner and spirit. A trader is a man who earns what he gets, and does not give or take the undeserved. A trader does not ask to be paid for his failures, he does not ask to be loved for his flaws. A trader does not squander his body as fodder, or his soul as alms. Just as he does not give his work except in trade for material values, so he does not give the values of his spirit-his love, his friendship, his esteem-except in payment and in trade for human virtue, in payment for his own selfish pleasure, which he receives from men he can respect. The mystic parasites who have, throughout the ages, reviled the trader and held him in contempt, while honoring the beggars and the looters, have known the secret motive of their sneers: a trader is the entity they dread-a man of justice. Ayn Rand
I didn't know so many had drank the Ayn Rand cool aid, you do know it's just a book. Glad you guys are in the minority. But extremist usually are the minority. Hey have fun with your religious Ayn Rand experience.
Scum bags and evil, heck of a way to describe someone who doesn't think exactly as you do, shallow and conceited. You're not as smart as you think you are.
Good call bro That kind of heated, inflammatory rhetoric needs to stop. 99% of Americans are on the same team. We want a good education for our kids, we want prosperity, progress, we want to take care of the elderly. So we disagree about how best to achieve that....great! Let's debate. But at the end of the day you gotta have respect for those that don't agree with you. We as humans need to debate our ideas; it's in our makeup. Be glad that there are those with opposing views, otherwise, what a boring, messed up world we would have. No political party has a monopoly on the truth. I understand it gets heated sometimes, but take a step back every now and then and recognize that your 'enemy' is really not so bad.
When lefties spew this garbage all i can do is laugh. In a truely free market capitalist system how the hell can the rich steal from the poor? Everyone in a capitalist system has a choice what their level of participation is. If you dont like the way a company does business, dont buy their products. If you dont like how much you are getting paid then switch jobs, or else quit. Dont give me this b.s. that the rich steal from the poor, everyone has a choice in capitalism. Everyone can go out and start their own business if they want to and they have the drive to succeed. This is alot more then i can say for the current form of socialism that the government from both sides is forcing on us. It doesnt matter whether or not I like how much someone in government is getting paid, I still have to pay taxes to support the scam, and should i decide to take a hiatus from paying my taxes i will be thrown in jail. The rich pay for every single thing the poor get from the government, the bottom 50% of Americans dont even pay taxes anymore, so who is stealing from who here?
A movie will never do the book justice. The book is what? 1000 pages long? How does the director think hes going to give an accurate portrayal of the events in the book? Movie versions of Harry Potter work because that is entertainment material for the young. The young just want the flashy graphics. Fans of a book like Atlas Shrugged are not going to settle for a watered down movie version.
I don't think this is the case, for the vast majority of traders here. And so what if it is? We are not thought police. As someone who aspires to be extremely rich one day, I feel it is my duty to give something back to others less fortunate. That is a personal choice, a commitment I have made, it also drives me on to succeed. For some reason I don't like someone else imposing that obligation on me, by force or some other means. I think it is natural to want to fight back when others attempt to impose their will on you. Maybe we should get more say in where our taxes go? Perhaps if you were allowed to allocate a certain % of your taxes to a cause of your own choice when you filed your annual returns, then it might feel less like stealing and more like giving. I don't know... Other traders may want to get rich and never give something back, but I also fully respect their decision 100%. It is their money.