Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Why did Rand approve of Greenspan's appointment to the Fed chairma

Rate this topic


cliveandrews

Recommended Posts

That was a short thread....

A minor historical correction -- Rand did not approve of Greenspan's appointment to the Federal Reserve. He was first appointed by Reagan in 1986; Rand died in 1982. People tend to get this mixed up with her approval of Greenspan's appointment to President Ford's Council of Economic Advisors in 1974.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A minor historical correction -- Rand did not approve of Greenspan's appointment to the Federal Reserve. He was first appointed by Reagan in 1986; Rand died in 1982. People tend to get this mixed up with her approval of Greenspan's appointment to President Ford's Council of Economic Advisors in 1974.

You beat me to the punch again khaight! :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

There is one member here who thinks that is the case (look for other Greenspan threads). It's a long-running conspiracy theory with all the evidence against it and none in favor. the problem is this: like any good conspiracy theory, anything you say to show that Greenspan was a power-hungry scardy-cat who got lucky during his tenure and pandered to politicians, will only be turned around. You'll be told that that is evidence that he was so good at hiding his purposes! One cannot win the argument as long as the gremlin on Greenspan's shoulder chooses not reveal itself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone think that Greenspan might be like John Galt?

I have no reason to believe that Greenspan's intentions were anything like those of John Galt, so I find even entertaining the notion quite frivolous, but here goes:

Let's say Greenspan's intention was to be John Galt (or d'Anconia). There's a glaring difference between both Galt and D'Anconia, and Greenspan: morality.

While Galt and D'Anconia recognized that their only chance at a good life was to do what they did, they never sacrificed anyone for their cause. They never violated anyone's rights, they always acted morally. What Galt did was to tell the truth, and allow others the freedom to choose based on that truth. What D'Anconia destroyed was his to destroy.

Greenspan was the Chairman of the Fed. He actively took part in violating the rights of Americans, and through that action hurt individual Americans enormously. As immoral as it gets. His intentions are irrelevant. What matters are his actions. I did not sign up to withdraw from society, have you? And yet, Mr. Greenspan managed (evidence points toward: unintentionally) to withdraw a lot of the products of our work, despite our objections, through the use of force.

In conclusion, intentions aside, Alan Greenspan's actions make him an anti-hero. His intentions, good or bad, do not excuse his methods, which are despicable.

If anyone wishes to become John Galt in the future, they are welcome to it. As long as they allow their convictions to prove them right, and resort only to persuasion rather than force to bring about what they consider the necessary collapse of society. In fact, who knows, maybe I'll be persuaded myself. Just don't do it with guns: if you do, then you're a tyrant, just like all the other tyrants. Not a hero.

Edited by Jake_Ellison
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have no reason to believe that Greenspan's intentions were anything like those of John Galt, so I find even entertaining the notion quite frivolous, but here goes:

Let's say Greenspan's intention was to be John Galt (or d'Anconia). There's a glaring difference between both Galt and D'Anconia, and Greenspan: morality.

While Galt and D'Anconia recognized that their only chance at a good life was to do what they did, they never sacrificed anyone for their cause. They never violated anyone's rights, they always acted morally. What Galt did was to tell the truth, and allow others the freedom to choose based on that truth. What D'Anconia destroyed was his to destroy.

Greenspan was the Chairman of the Fed. He actively took part in violating the rights of Americans, and through that action hurt individual Americans enormously. As immoral as it gets. His intentions are irrelevant. What matters are his actions. I did not sign up to withdraw from society, have you? And yet, Mr. Greenspan managed (evidence points toward: unintentionally) to withdraw a lot of the products of our work, despite our objections, through the use of force.

In conclusion, intentions aside, Alan Greenspan's actions make him an anti-hero. His intentions, good or bad, do not excuse his methods, which are despicable.

If anyone wishes to become John Galt in the future, they are welcome to it. As long as they allow their convictions to prove them right, and resort only to persuasion rather than force to bring about what they consider the necessary collapse of society. In fact, who knows, maybe I'll be persuaded myself. Just don't do it with guns: if you do, then you're a tyrant, just like all the other tyrants. Not a hero.

Nobody ever remembers the third vertex of the triangle that brought the world to a halt...

As to such things as taxes and the rebuilding of a country, I will say that in his goals, if not his methods, the best economist in Atlas Shrugged was Ragnar Danneskjöld.

-Ayn Rand, Egalitarianism and Inflation, 1974

"Economist?" Now that's a funny thing to say about a guy who uses force to destroy a nation's ill-gotten wealth. Hey, wait a minute... Greenspan is an economist... 1974...

Probably just a coincidence.

;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...