Ayn Rand (new right)

• Human nature

  • To promote altruism and argue that we live to help others is to argue that we have no right to support our own human life
  • Individuals are perfectly capable of identifying rational values that would best serve their long term interests
  • We are guided by rational self interest and the pursuit of self fufilment
  • Altruism and self sacrifice is immoral
  • The prime moral purpose of life is the individual pursuit of happiness
• Society

  • Positive rights are unnatural and cannot be claimed
  • There is no such thing as positive rights that impose obligations on people as such rights do not exist in nature and upholding them just means violating the rights of some to benefit others
  • The idea of the common good was too vague and dangerous and is used to justify coercion against individuals
  • Society is atomistic, the mere sum total of its individuals
  • Any attempt to restrict individuals in the name of society should be challenged
  • Collectivism is dangerous
• The state

  • Individual rights are the most important thing
  • The state should consist of police, armed forces and law courts that are ideally voluntarily funded
  • The state should confine itself to law, order and security
  • Any attempt to promote 'positive liberty' via further state intervention should be resisted
• The economy

  • The free market is the only system compatible with human nature as it rejects altruism and collectivism and leaves the individual free to rationally pursue their self interests
  • No one should have a claim on the products and labour of others
  • Against keynesian economics and state intervention
  • Laissez-faire capitalism