TOS Blog: Daily Commentary from an Objectivist Perspective

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Capitalism and the Environment: The Virtues of ‘Exploitation’

Posted by ARI Media at 1:51 pm

What: A talk analyzing the destructive nature of environmentalism–and explaining the constructive role of science, technology, and capitalism in promoting human life and progress. A Q&A will follow.

Who: Richard M. Salsman, public speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute

Where: Rice University, Herzstein Hall, Room 212, Houston, TX

When: Tuesday, March 25, 2008, at 7:30 pm

Admission is FREE.

Description: Man achieves his survival by using his mind to alter his environment to suit his needs and improve the conditions of his existence. It is this process–expressed in science, technology, and capitalism–that has allowed man to rise from the hunger, drudgery, and misery of primitive existence to the comfort of modern civilization. But it is precisely this process that is under attack by the reactionary "greens"–who want to return man to the pre-industrial era even to the Stone Age.

In this talk, Mr. Salsman does not merely discredit the scientific claims of environmentalism; he demolishes its moral and philosophical base. He demonstrates that: (1) the doctrine that nature has "intrinsic value," i.e., some sort of mystical value entirely apart from its relation to man, is nothing but the desire to destroy human values, (2) the improvement of the environment–for man–can only be provided by laissez-faire capitalism, and (3) that it is the environmentalist movement itself that is today’s greatest danger to human health and happiness.

Bio: Richard M. Salsman, CFA, is founder, president and chief market strategist of InterMarket Forecasting, Inc., an investment research and forecasting firm based in Chapel Hill, NC. Mr. Salsman is a noted authority on banking and capitalism. He is the author of two books, Gold and Liberty (1995) and Breaking the Banks: Central Banking Problems and Free Banking Solutions (1990). Mr. Salsman’s articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Barron’s, Forbes, and The National Post ( Canada). Mr. Salsman lectures widely at investment gatherings and at universities such as Harvard University, the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley.

For more information: e-mail media@aynrand.org

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Posted in: Business and Economics, Environmentalism, Events