Paul Ryan is Romneys vp

[Kasz216]

Chark said:

Kasz216 said:

Chark said:

"I am Andrew Paul Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."

The funny thing about Bioshock is... a lot of people take it as  a repudiation of Ayn Rand... but if anything, if you listen to all the tapes and shit it seems if anything like a repudiation of Andrew Ryan the hippocrit..

 

I mean, the Objective Utopia Rapture rules early on, it got crazy technology we didn't have today and people seemed pretty happy, Andrew Ryan refused to help big buisnesses forcing them to compete with each other and provide value for people.

Things only really seemed to start really going to hell the minute he turned his back on his own principles because HE was being challenged by (Fontaine) who had an advantage when it came to ADAM.  (Fointaine) never crossed the line, which was hard considering how few lines there were... and eventually Andrew Ryan said "Screw the rules".

He lost his main supporters one by one until he finally took the one act that was most sacriligious to the objectivist code, in which he lost everybody.

 

Had Rapture never developed the ability to give people superpowers, there would be no catalyst and Rapture theoretically would of stayed perfect.

If anything, the creators of Bioshock seemed more sympathetic to such a philosphy then most.  I actually believe the writers of bioshock said this once in an intereview.

I think you are seeing it how you want to see it. I can't really say it is being critical of the philosophy, its a game, and they did have super powers. I can see it as a critic of the philosophy though because it does touch on some points that cause it to fall apart.

Bolded is the a great example of the problems this philosophy has.

First, rules exist. Who makes the rules? Ryan? A king/dictator in reality, regardless of the free market that exists because in essense it only exists because he allows it to exist. Screwing the rules, they don't hold much meaning, no checks, no balances. If someone isn't pulling all the strings rules don't matter and that's only if that person chooses to obey them and enforce them or not.

Second, competition. The real philosophic struggle as this utopia comes crashing down is the competitive nature of Ryan and Fontaine. They are bent to control the place through means of war. In the end its greed, a human nature attribute that is the root cause for the self destruction in such an environment. Free markets can be the most effecient but it is a fragile thing that will go to the ends of entire collapse so that one person can receive an advantage. It's not everyone and its not all the time, but it is not designed to handle greed and destruction, be it from the outside or from the ones in control. It is much easy to destroy than it is to build

Essentially if you give people free reign to do what they want things will go wrong, not everyone will participate but it does not take many to throw a wrench in the system and cause everyone else to be reactionary and easily manipulated. Pure capitalism relies on people doing what is right and doing what is industrial, but those things are not always mutual.

Actually, i was going more off of what i've read people talk about the game developers, and just listening to the audio tapes.

Personally I think anarcho capitalism is full of crap.  For a lot of the reasons you stated.

Though I think that's the same reason large overarching governments don't work either, because governments are also run by men with the same greed impulse... who have the power to give favors.  In general, i'm wary of people who WANT to be in government, I mean, who looks at the President's before and after pictures and things "Yeah, I want that."

 

What's needed in general is a small government which enforces very clear, uniform regulations on people and buisnesses with little to no room for exceptions and waivers and such.

So for example, a progressive income tax and corporate tax with zero deductions.

 Or clear easy to understand progressive regulations.

Since just how a flat tax disproportionatly falls on the poor... flat regulations fall disproportinatly on small businesses.