Lemonaid

24 Replies to “Lemonaid”

1. Sweet video.
   I tend to cringe a little when this site champions Ayn Rand, since it has a tendency to take opposing opinions in respects to even the most basic aspects of her philosophy.
   However, at least you attempt to support rewarding ability.

2. How can such a screwed-up dad have a kid with this much potential?
   I guess a government job is in the cards for the kid in the ball cap.

3. Great video.
   BTJ do you mind expanding on your claim that this site takes opposing opinions to the most basic aspects of Rand’s philosophy?
   Free market and individual responsibility are pretty key aspects which are reflected here.

4. Fast forward 20 years…. The kid in the ball cap is a shoe in for a professor of economics position or at the very least, an expert in environmental studies…

5. In real life wouldn’t the ball cap called the police and had the successful kid shut down for bylaw infraction? Got Olby to name him worst person and Whoopie and Joy berate him on the View? BTJ?

6. And to go along with this insanity, McGuinty’s economic minister crowed that Ontario had a job growth of 31,000 last month. Of course he forgot to mention, as StatsCan showed, 20,000 of these new jobs were GOVERNMENT JOBS for Ontario.
   Say each government job with benefits paid $50k so the annual payroll would be $1,000,000,000. Assuming the same wage for the private sector employees, though we know it would be much lower, and their tax rate was 25% it would take 80,000 private sector employees just to pay their wages. Don’t think the 11,000 new private sector are going to manage it.

7. The only thing missing from this video is the municipal official arriving to force both lemonade stands to close because neither has a lemonade stand license.

8. I think BTJ has a point, Rand seems to be the idol of the guy who says “Greed is good!”. Rand may not be totally without scruples, but she has no time for the supernatural or for giving a helping hand along the way. It isn’t Christian or religious charity that destroys initiative, it is government largesse with our money. John Randolph of Roanoke claimed that “A more pernicious notion cannot prevail, than that the government is not only to attend to the great concerns which are its province, but it must step in and ease individuals of their natural and moral obligations.” Of course, it is believed that he was a racist.

9. We all know what Jack Layton and Michael Ignateif would say.

10. There would be nothing charitable about helping the ball capped kid. He just received more economics education than the entire combined NDP and Liberal population can comprehend. The look on the face of the kid with a tie after his dad suggested sharing is the essence of the altruism that Rand abhors.

11. ” greed is good.” Who is the greedy one? The one who offers a service and a reasonable price, or the one who expects a handout while doing nothing.

12. Then there are those who sell secrets or classified tidbits. In the N.P. today was George Jonas’ wonderful backing of Tom Flanagan’s off-the-cuff remarks about wikileak’s founder, Julian Assange. I tend to think of Assange as a traitor, if not to Australia than to all NATO allies. It has always been my impression that this kind of treachery appeals to the effete; i.e. Philby, Blunt, MacLean, et al. This is not to be misconstrued as gay, but definitely unmanly, as rapists might be described. I think most Aussies would agree with me on this.

13. …

14. Rand espoused the Libertarian philosophy. The fact that some have used her writings to prop up their non-Libertarian ideas does not detract from the validity of what she wrote. She predicted the economic/social mess we’re in today, fools continue to ignore it.

15. The first half minute of the vid had me thinking this was about a privileged upper class kid (tie) vs the down-trodden ordinary kid (ballcap).
    Shows to go ya, attitude and initiative do matter. And first impressions can be deceiving.

16. larben said: “Rand may not be totally without scruples, but she has no time for the supernatural or for giving a helping hand along the way.”
    Say rather that Rand had no use for those who use religion or “morality” to extort money from people.
    Kate posted a video interview of Anne Rand a while ago. Rand stated she believed in charity, true giving to help other people such as between husband and wife, family, friends, etc. and to think otherwise was idiotic.
    It was “Give money to the church or you’ll go to hell!” she didn’t have much time for.
    As for Assange, given his latest leaks about the Copenhagen envirowhacko summit and the Barry Obama regime arm-twisting brigade there, I’m starting to think Julian baby is in the pay of somebody who doesn’t like George Soros.

17. What an absolutely brilliant video. Reminds me of when I was about 9, and this dumbass teacher proclaimed that we all had the same brains and were all capable of accomplishing the same things. Even at 9 I recognized that she was an idiot.
    As to the Lemonade stand, that is where I first got my start as an entrepreneur…stood me in good stance ever since :).

18. We didn’t do Lemonade stands in Britain, my first job at age 12 was helping the milkman do his Saturday round because that was the day he collected the money for the week’s milk supply. This was 56 years ago. The milk float was electric, powered by batteries believe it or not.
    It sure taught me that working was better than idling my time. I’m still working, maybe retire in 2 more years.

19. That was a very interesting vid. Kate. One great lesson for anyone trying to get ahead -“Put your best foot forward” is what my Mom always told us.
    I read Ayn Rand’s books many years ago and have re read them at different times when I have felt like reading something that would force me to think. I think that ‘We the Living’ offered the insight into understanding the philosophy behind Ayn’s latter, bigger novels; the ‘why’ she thought as she did. “We the Living” does not require a dictionary at your elbow, it is a love story that ends in tragedy. It is the story of the theft of the human soul by ‘needy’, envious people who believe that they they are ‘entitled’ to share the proceeds of the accomplishments of other people and the former are given the power to force people to give away their minds and their wealth (their souls). Ayn takes that notion and describes how the vile Communist doctrine makes all people hollow and kills the human spirit. The fact that the church preaches the same notion from some pulpits makes them complicit in the destruction of the souls of God’s children. Ayn wrote another story (I think she called it “Red Pawn” but I could be wrong about the title) that was unpublished for many years, it too was about the Soviet Union and it too was a love story; a very complex love story. The second short story is about a young couple’s successful escape to the west and to the freedom to live life, without being forced to sell one’s soul.
    Many people today do not remember the joys of living in a nation that is not riddled with petty rules and regulations, a country where people could buy and sell goods without gument interference – Russia, like Canada, had been such a nation before the Bolsheviks took over. Russia, in 1914, was the fastest growing economy of the world with the fastest growing middle class. The church and the ‘elitist’ upper class opposed this growth because it deprived them of obedient peons; hence, Ayn’s beef with the church. The First World War bled Russia blue and destroyed the economy so the prosperity of the new found middle class was undermined and when the people lost respect for the Czar (the ‘little Father’ – representing God on earth), the church lost it’s power too. The ‘liberated’ minds of the people looked for something/someone to believe, Germany sent them the monster Lenin. Lenin unleashed another blood bath within Russia and exhausted the people, they were starved, imprisoned, robbed of property and threatened. When the people could no longer think for themselves, even to the point of not caring if they lived or died – Lenin consolidated his evil power and took away any reason to be from future generations. Ayn Rand was a teenager when Lenin was consolidating; her family was not fully aware of what had happened when they moved back to St. Petersburg (from the country) to find work and supposedly build a new life for themselves. The building of life had ended in Russia and the manner in which the Bolsheviks forced people to pervert their beliefs in order to eat revolted the young Ayn; hence her escape and her ‘attitude’. She realized that people are broken by forced labor for others and by rules and regulations if they choose to work for themselves; they lose that ‘edge’ that makes souls sing. There is no joy in accomplishing something for someone else. Joy is the essence of living, Ayn Rand recognized this fact, IMO. She was not anti God, she was pro Human Spirit. She wanted to live in a land where spirits soared and there was appreciation for the joy that a soul celebrates when a person accomplishes a mission. The church and the Bolsheviks in Ayn Rand’s Russia both preached ‘sacrifice’ for the good of others, no joy, just grinding guilt and shared poverty.
    Here, in North America, the church needs to pull up it’s socks and start giving God’s children spiritual bread and wine and get out of the business of social engineering, politics and economics, IMO. We have allowed ourselves to buy into the notion that we are our brother’s economic keeper and that we should share our life’s work with every Tom, Dick and Harry on the street; that we “owe” other people a piece of all that we have built. We are a people being robbed of our own selves and the church in many cases has set the stage for exactly what happened to the people in Russia. IMO.

20. Well said Jema
    I agree about “We the Living” as it’s also my favourite Rand novel. I read it while at university 40 years ago and her description of Communist party functionaries at the university perfectly described the Communists I observed at the U of A campus, even to their colourless physical appearance and humorless demeanor (hollowed-out souls). I recall being shocked by her prescience but came to realize that she was emoting the timeless struggle of the free rational spirit against the tribal looters and thugs who have always been ready and willing to dominate physically and spiritually.

21. Good grief Jenna…I have been a fan of Ayn Rand since I was a teenager…some 45 years ago. But I have never seen her story expressed so succinncly. Frankly girl, you need to give the world a favour, establish a website, and express more of your viewpoints.

22. Jema, it was the same communist system that shut down the churches and took over their schools, hospitals and charities. It may well be because of that that Ayn never heard why her people were called the People of the Book, because the synagogues were shut down too, and the rabbis imprisoned along with the priests. I never thought of Ayn Rand as a joyous person, that, I believe comes with faith in God.

23. I thought that the punch line was going to be that the big guy at the end was from Revenue Canada. He was there to collect 1/2 of the earnings and turn them over to the “poor” guy who was unable to make a go of it.

24. “BTJ do you mind expanding on your claim that this site takes opposing opinions to the most basic aspects of Rand’s philosophy?”
    The mosque debate for example…the majority opinion was that individual rights didn’t matter, what mattered was a ‘group determined, subjective moral judgment’.
    Another, the Wikileaks…most seem to support the government (for what reason I’ve yet to discover) and not Assange’s individual rights (what law did he break?).
    And finally, Rand does not support organized religions..a touchy subject around here.
    ” I never thought of Ayn Rand as a joyous person, that, I believe comes with faith in God.”
    Speaking of which…oh god! What a bunch of nonsense!