University of Calgary, my employer, recently announced that this year it will require all newly-admitted students to read “No Impact Man,” the New York-based author Colin Beavan’s account of living for a year in Manhattan in an effort to strive for “zero environmental...
It is wrong of governments to interfere with markets, whether through protectionism or other regulations restricting our freedom to trade and compete.
Almost 400 garment workers were crushed to death when shoddily built factory building collapsed in Bangladesh last month. Tragedies like this lead to a lot of finger-pointing in the media, as well as proposals for their prevention in the future. Unfortunately, much of...
The best way for human beings to survive and flourish is not to be givers or takers but traders.
Apple, the most highly valued technology company and the creator of wonderful products that millions enjoy and use to enhance their productivity, has been accused of not paying enough taxes at a congressional hearing where CEO Tim Cook was grilled yesterday. (See the...
RBC and any other company should be free to outsource as much as they want—because it is moral.
In its recently released budget the Canadian (Conservative!) government announced $6.4 billion of new corporate welfare spending. The aerospace sector will receive $1.2 billion of it over the next five years, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario...
My book, How to Be Profitable and Moral: A Rational Egoist Approach to Business, has been translated into Finnish and was recently published in Finland. At the book launch in Helsinki, an appreciative reader (of the English-language original) and a business owner...
In my last article I wrote about stores selling products past their best before date—such as the expired canned lobster pate, which raised demands for legislation against selling expired food products in Canada. I argued that such legislation would be a violation of...
How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins
A Canadian woman recently bought a can of lobster pate at a Wal-Mart store. The pate was about a year and half past its best before date, and the woman claimed that she felt ill about four hours after consuming some of the pate. In this era of the nanny state, the...
Instead of taxing the 1% more, we should thank them.
The newly rediscovered, nutritious “miracle grain” quinoa, eaten increasingly by health-conscious consumers in the developed countries, is making the rich richer and the poor poorer. At least if we are to believe the recent article in The Guardian newspaper of the...
Most people think that it is unethical to be selfish. They have been taught that we should always put others’ interests ahead of our own and that pursuing self-interest is immoral. That is why they also think that business—which by definition pursues self-interest:...
I was listening to the radio on the weekend and heard a leading Canadian socialist, Stephen Lewis, lament about the big income gap between the rich and the poor as one of the worst ills in society today. Reflecting on that and on the exodus of millionaires from France...
At this time of the year, many of us are giving presents out of benevolence, goodwill, appreciation, and love—I hope. Gifts are a means of showing that we value their recipients in some way, whether friends, loved ones, causes, or charities. Giving gifts out of duty...
After months of deliberation, the Canadian government has finally approved the $15 billion takeover of the Canadian-based oil and gas producer Nexen Inc. by CNOOC, one of the state-owned oil companies of China. While I applaud the government for the approval, it...
Protection of individual rights, including property rights, is the requirement of harmony of people’s interests and everyone’s well-being, with the added benefit of goodwill and benevolence among all.
According to conventional morality, humility is a virtue. We are taught to think not too highly of ourselves or not to take credit for our achievements. Whatever we accomplish is due to collective effort or the grace of a higher power. A group of Executive MBA...
I am writing this post in Finland where I am working for a month. Last week the Finns marked their annual unofficial “National Envy Day” when the Finnish Revenue Service publicized the income taxes and income of every tax-paying citizen. That in itself is a shocking...
If we are to believe people like President Obama who famously said: “You didn’t build that”, individual accomplishment is insignificant; only as a group we can build something. While collaboration, trade, and learning are great benefits of living in a society and we...
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