aynrand.org/impact Volume 18, Number 7, July 2012 The Ayn Rand Institute Responds to the Obamacare Verdict n the day the Supreme Court ruled on the Onkar Ghate of action to earn and keep property and enter O constitutionality of President Obama’s sig- A sad day for opponents of only into those contracts you so choose. Properly nature legislation, ARI writers and speakers com- Obamacare. understood, these rights mean that you should be mented—in writing, on radio, on video—on the But the Supreme Court’s free economically to purchase or not purchase implications of the ruling for the future of health ruling on the individual man- health insurance from willing sellers. Period. care and, broadly, for the future of freedom date should not be surprising. And this I think is where the battle for Ameri- in America. The government, through the ca’s heart and mind must be fought. We must fight The following is a reprint of a post from ARI’s tax code, already seeks to for our right to produce and trade free from gov- blog Laissez-Faire: The Uncompromised Case for control in countless ways what ernment dictates. Gone should be a tax code that Capitalism, in which ARI writers offered their first we buy and don’t buy. The uses carrots and sticks to try to control our behav- reactions to the Court’s decision. The blog can be deduction on mortgage interest is the government ior; gone should be all the subsidies to individuals viewed at laissezfaireblog.com. “encouraging” you to buy a home. Sin taxes on and corporations; gone should be all the regula- cigarettes and alcohol are the government penal- tions that tell companies what they can produce Yaron Brook izing you for smoking and drinking. Apparently, and how they must produce it and that tell us what Government has been tighten- the individual mandate is being placed in a similar we are permitted to buy and not buy. ing its grip on the economy category: the government is penalizing you for not In the short term, this might mean working for more than a century. purchasing health insurance. to repeal Obamacare. In the longer term, it means Obamacare is one major step What about the distinction between activity proudly asserting that among what the Declaration down that road. and inactivity, the idea that now the government promises to all Americans is our full right to eco- This is an unhappy has the effrontery to penalize us for not doing nomic freedom. We must settle for nothing less. moment for freedom’s sup- something? porters. Obamacare will con- Leaving aside the legal intricacies of inter- Don Watkins tinue the government’s long preting the commerce clause (and the tax code), As disappointed as I am by and ugly track record of regulating American the argument that the government can legiti- the Court’s decision, I am not health care. In the short term, the results will be mately control all forms of economic action but surprised. Although many in higher costs, less competition, less innovation, must not touch inaction, was never plausible America still pay lip service to more bureaucracy, decreased quality. In the long philosophically. This is the argument, as law pro- limited government and eco- run, the result will be the complete destruction of fessor John Yoo put it, that in America the “court nomic freedom, it’s been clear American health care, as the system’s problems has never upheld a federal law that punishes for a long time that nothing are inevitably blamed on our “private” health Americans for exercising their God-given right to the government wants to con- care system and a fully socialized “single payer” do absolutely nothing.” trol, regulate, tax or interfere with is off limits. medicine is offered up as the only cure. But the “God-given right to do absolutely How did we get to this point? Through a But supporters of bigger government should nothing” (and so to wither away and die) is not series of small and not so small compromises and think twice before celebrating. For those of us what America is about. The Declaration of Inde- concessions. Instead of standing on principle for who believe that the Founding Fathers would have pendence does not mention this among our rights: limited government, we said that the government never stood for bringing medicine under the thumb it lists the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of can redistribute wealth and regulate industries like of bureaucrats, the fight to limit government con- happiness. There are rights to take action—free health care “just a little”—and then a little more, tinues. Today will serve only to reenergize us. from the coercive control of government. Prop- and then a little more. If ever there was an illustra- erly understood, these rights include the freedom continued on page 2 ARI Responds to Attacks New Book Alert: Against Private Equity The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure mid the recent smears against private equity firms, ARI offered commentary mpact is thrilled to alert you to a new book, The Finan- A in moral support of that little-understood industry. I cial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capital- In USA Today, the newspaper with the largest print circulation in the United ism Is the World Economy’s Only Hope, by John A. Allison. States, ARI executive director Yaron Brook and ARI fellow Don Watkins wrote Mr. Allison is the retired chairman and CEO of BB&T Cor- the “opposing view” to the newspaper’s editorial on the subject. They argued, in poration and an ARI board member. His book will be pub- part: “Anyone who’s sincerely interested in jobs for Americans needs to under- lished by McGraw-Hill on September 12, 2012. stand that the only source of jobs is profitable enterprises. Private equity firms are In the book, Mr. Allison argues against current financial in the business of creating such enterprises—sometimes by rescuing salvageable regulations and proposes the cure to the economy’s ills. companies, sometimes by closing down dying businesses and shifting the remain- Mr. Allison shows how any policy that reduces economic MHP1102 Allison postcard.indd 1 6/14/12 4:08 PM ing capital to profitable firms.” The article, published May 28, appeared under the or political freedom is destructive to the overall health of the headline “Celebrate Private Equity” and can be read at bit.ly/privequity. LEONARD PEIKOFF economy, and he argues for liberating the American economy. In Investor’s Business Daily, ARI analyst Doug Altner responded to two com- THE The month of September will see the release of two mon attacks against private equity firms: that they eliminate good jobs and pursue DIM other books about which ARI is extremely excited. One profits at the expense of the viability of the companies they acquire. Responding HYPOTHESIS why the lights of the west is The DIM Hypothesis: Why the Lights of the West Are to the charge that private equity firms destroy good jobs, Dr. Altner wrote: “Well, are going out Going Out, written by Leonard Peikoff, a close associate good for whom? Retaining workers is not good for a company if it can drastically of Ayn Rand’s and her legal heir. Dr. Peikoff’s book will improve earnings by shrinking to a more manageable size, which may include be released on September 4. The other is ARI executive closing unprofitable facilities and laying off hundreds. To stay competitive director Yaron Brook and ARI fellow Don Watkins’s Free in today’s dynamically evolving economy, companies must be able to constantly Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big adapt, and this may require substantial reorganization and downsizing.” Government, which will hit stores on September 18. Addressing the issue of whether private equity firms are focused on their own Dr. Peikoff’s book is available for pre-order on Amazon. To pre-order the continued on page 4 other two books, please visit freemarketbook.com. The Ayn Rand Institute Responds to the Obamacare Verdict, continued from page 1 tion of Ayn Rand’s point that compromising on capitalism is the road to statism, Obamacare is it. The next step for anyone who values Ameri- can freedom is to draw a line in the sand: fight any government action, policy or proposal that violates individual rights. Call for a repeal of Obamacare, yes. But don’t just hold up a stop sign. Get to work fighting for a positive agenda: a fully free market the intentions of any given official, a system that The Founding Fathers’ in health care. leaves no opportunity, no legal loophole for the development of tyranny.” (“The Nature of Govern- Achievement Elan Journo ment,” The Virtue of Selfishness) I grew up in the U.K. where At root, Rand explains, the Founding Fathers In this section, Impact highlights writings from I became intimately familiar built a political system on the premise of “man’s Ayn Rand’s corpus for fans who wish to learn with what happens when right to his own life, to his own liberty, to the pursuit more about her philosophy, Objectivism. government controls health of his own happiness—which means: man’s right to care, as it does under the exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to National Health Service. s America celebrates its birthday this July, others nor sacrificing others to himself.” (“For the Many well-meaning doctors Ayn Rand’s writings on the Founding Fathers New Intellectual,” For the New Intellectual) A and nurses work in the NHS; and the system of government they established “[E]verything that America achieved,” wrote many valiantly strive to do what’s right by their serve as an important reminder of what exactly we Rand elsewhere, “everything she became, every- patients; the system itself, though, inexorably are celebrating.