Ayn Rand was crazy.
I think a lot of people go through an Ayn Rand faze when younger...sort of like going through a Limbaugh faze.
But that's all she is.
I can't watch the videos here at work. Choosing to be poor?
What a profound observation.
She is exactly right in that observation.
All environmental factors aside, if a poor person really used their opportunities society gave them throughout life (education +++), and started creating their own, they'd not be poor unless they had some major unfortunate incident (paralyzed children, mental retardation and so on). Analyze any poor persons life, and you find hundreds of wasted opportunities and thousands of self destructive actions that has lead them to where they are today while at the same time: keeping them there.
It's somewhat analogous to being fat. Most fatties see themselves as victims, while gorging themselves with food, when the opportunity go get lean found around every corner.
Thus, it's a choice, because the objective world holds NO TRUE obstacles for the majority of poor and/or fat people to get out of their misery, the real obstacles is internal, and allthough the internal struggle to overcome ones own mental obstacles = often the strongest one, it still goes under the definition of choice by far.
At the same time, the ONLY way for a poor or fat person to actually GET OUT of their fatness/poverty is by making a CONSCIOUS CHOICE to utilize every opportunity they can get for as long as it takes to get where they want. Nobody is giving it to them, but the opportunities is there if they just take personal responsibility for their lives, choose to do what is needed, and never stop. Instead fat and poor people have in the majority of the cases made a conscious or unconscious choice to not do anything of what is needed, although they have all the opportunities if they applied themselves.
Ayn Rand was 100% correct.
