User blog comment:GrandMethuselah67/Character Sheet: Malcolm River/@comment-4867780-20161014010956/@comment-26322734-20161016044527

"Hmm... I think I finally put my finger on the recurring uneasiness I was feeling. What you're describing is a highly rational attitude, and humans beings are not entirely rational, emotional factors also exert a strong influence on most of our actions. Most people know that Mac Donalds is basically poisoning them but they are still flooding in anyway, most smokers know for a fact they are slowly self-destructing but keep smoking anyway, many politicians who did unacceptable things are still elected anyway, most people know that Microsoft is slowly taking over their entire cyber-lives but they still buy its products anyway (Windows 10 is the biggest surveillance/spying network is the history of mankind)."

There you go! And that, my friend, is a flaw in the structure of free societies. Nobody is protecting people from themselves, so self-harmful behavior in the name of consumerism such as, as you've mentioned, eating McDonalds and smoking. All of these behaviors, to the ethical egoist, are completely fine due to them being the individual deciding what is best for them.

That's what it's all about, really. Freedom of choice. And that's the idea behind Free Market Capitalism. Sure, you may be eating literal garbage, smoking enough to cut your lifespan in half, and doing enough drugs to make yourself look eighty when you're really twenty, but the whole point is that you chose to do this to yourself. You are the only one responsible for your actions. Not the government, not the corporations, not anyone else, but you.

It is a philosophy that, above all else, emphasizes the freedom of the individual, to make good choices or bad choices. And yes, there are many flaws. But at least you don't have to make those decisions. Get what I'm saying? It's all about liberation from the liability and collectivization of others, and the persuit of your own self-interest, whatever it may be, and as allowed by the market.

More coming, just wanted to get that statement through.