Thread:User talk:Reckless Noise Symphony/And Stalin was an atheist/reply (19)

Well if you heard an Objectivist saying that giving to charity is immoral then he's certainly got the wrong end of the stick. Ayn Rand claimed that charity was morally neutral: that is one was allowed to do it but had no obligation to do it. Yaron Brook, who I have mentioned on many occasions now, has pointed out that when America was economical free there was, what somebody at the time called "an embarrassing" amount of private charity and there is nothing wrong with private charity at all because nobody wants to see people dieing in the streets. If you can give me that Objectivist's name I'd be grateful as he/she needs a good talking to.

Many libertarians are highly individualistic too, but yes, one of the many tenets of Objectivism is that your life belongs to you and that another person's need is not a moral claim upon it. If you see somebody going hungry and you don't like it then you are perfectly welcome to give away 90% of your wage slip/profits to help that person, but that person does not have a right to point a gun at your head and take it if you don't and he doesn't have a right to hire a force wielding third party like the government of the Mafia to do it for him either.

Incidentally when there is government teat-sucking there is a lot less private charity, when there is economic freedom there is a lot more. I'll find a few of Yaron Brook's lectures/radio interviews where he says just this. I'd certainly like to hear that radio interview you're talking about.

To put it simply individualism is about free choice: you are allowed to help those in need if you like but you are not forced to help them if you don't want to. In the real world, in a free society, most people are good and most people do want to help. Nothing in the world wrong with that.