By Ayn Rand
This mp3 features two unrelated short radio talks by Ayn Rand: “The Money-Making Personality” and “The Brain Drain.”
The Money-Making Personality
In this radio talk, Rand presents two distinct business personality types which she calls the Money-Maker and the Money-Appropriator. The former applies to innovators in business—the successful entrepreneurs who take calculated risks and succeed. Those with the Money-Appropriator personality type may also become rich, but usually through illegitimate means such as “cutting corners” in business or getting favors through political pull.
Rand discusses the many differences between these two archetypes, giving detailed descriptions of the essential characteristics of each. In addition, she briefly describes the qualities of real-life money-makers such as steamship and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie, automobile innovator Henry Ford, banking magnate J.P. Morgan, and many more.
The Brain Drain
In this talk, Rand comments on the 1960s “brain drain” in which many of the best and the brightest citizens chose to emigrate from Britain. Rand dismisses many explanations for this trend as too narrowly focused on particular economic events and policies. Instead, she argues that migration patterns of highly capable individuals are best explained by the relative levels of freedom between nations.
Defending this idea, Rand discusses the connection between industrial progress and the freedom for individuals to think and to act accordingly. She explains how a political system that actively encourages significant government intervention, such as Britain’s welfare state socialism, necessarily fails to appreciate the causes of economic progress is made. When government suppresses the individual liberty to use one’s mind, it is no surprise that economies stagnate and gradually decay, while free countries flourish.
Rand explains the tragic irony of how the British government was then attempting to combat its brain drain—a title she considered very apt—and advocates freedom for, and recognition of, the best and brightest individuals in every nation.
“The Money-Making Personality,” which first appeared as an article in the April 1963 edition of Cosmopolitan magazine, is 27 minutes long. “The Brain Drain” is 30 minutes long.
Listen to "The Money-Making Personality" for free here: https://courses.aynrand.org/works/the-money-making-personality/
Listen to "The Brain Drain" for free here: https://courses.aynrand.org/works/the-brain-drain/
(MP3 download; 56 min., 40.29 MB)
The description of this product was written and/or edited by ARI staff.
