Best of the Newsgroups: money-grubbing Ayn Rand self employment

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From: tony@pcunix.com
Subject: Re: CUSM: SCO Schilling Solecism Solace (was Forbes.com: Linux Loyalists Leery)
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 12:27:17 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <c53gf5$mua$2@pcls4.std.com> 
References: <ff3c0649.0403311346.6850cdac@posting.google.com> <r704705i4ig8lrp2cakchi6osbgh11afp4@4ax.com> <HvqEqL.1nJC@wjv.com> <6vo570hc7lm6qfrfrrob01osuc7srd0s5b@4ax.com> <HvrMyy.1v68@wjv.com> <i7o670hk4b3j23l6h6ui6h6d2jsg067stv@4ax.com> <mailman.7.1081314402.29015.sco-misc@lists.celestial.com> <ff3c0649.0404070648.2e498aa4@posting.google.com> 

J. L. Schilling <jlselsewhere@my-deja.com> wrote:
>Alas I have to interrupt this Ayn-fest to commit another solecism
>and say that I have no use for Rand, selfishness as a virtue,
>love of the almighty dollar, Objectivism, any of the post-Rand
>Objectivist factions, or the Rand personality cult.  Guess that's
>why I'm a salaried serf while the rest of you are entrepreneurial
>resellers ;-)

Well, you could look at it that way.  You could also say that you
help support the Evil Corporate System :-) by allowing yourself to
be enslaved by it.  Just another way to look at it.  

Some of us are entrepeneurial not for love of money or self, but
because we don't like group-think and prefer to be independent.

I know that for many, many people, there doesn't seem to be any other
choice but serfdom.  You have bills to pay, children to care for,
a lifestyle you don't want to lose.  You trade your freedom for security.

At one time in human history, all of us were entrepeneurs in
some sense.  In another sense, of course, we were tied to 
small groups even more strongly than you are tied to your
employer.  Hard to say whether you are more or less free,
but I am definitely MORE free than most people have been
able to be at any time in human history.

I can't speak for others, but for me, the desire for freedom,
the ability to pilot my own course, and the avoidance of petty
strictures is why I am independently employed.   It isn't an
easy life always, but I realized early on that I couldn't
improve it by enslaving other people  (I know that seems like
a very harsh word, but that is how I view most employment).

I did have daydreams about being successful enough where I
could create a worker's utopia - where the people who worked for
me would enjoy independence and freedom.  Gosh what a lovely
picture.  I soon realized that can never be because those that
COULD be part of such an environment are perfectly capable of
creating it themselves and those who are not don't want it:
they want the safety of someone else controlling their lives.
That this "safety" is a false promise is obvious, yet people
believe it.. but I'm rambling :-)

Anyway, not all of us are money-grubbing selfish bastards.  
Some of us are crazy libertarian wishful-utopian but practical
realist bastards.

More at http://www.aplawrence.com/Opinion/employ.html

-- 
tony@pcunix.com Unix/Linux/Mac OS X  resources: http://aplawrence.com
Get paid for writing about tech: http://aplawrence.com/publish.html
 

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