A Numismatic History of Hungary

Nagyszüleim magyarok voltak. My grandparents were Hungarians. Actually, the empire being what it was, my grandmother's father was Croatian. Her maiden name was Kovanics (originally Covanic). My grandfather's passport to America said that he was "German-Hungarian." But I know nothing else about that. Growing up, English was the official language of the house. But you get some relatives together and someone says, "Please" and someone else says, "Thank you" and then "You're welcome." And everyone is speaking Hungarian... except the in-laws... and it goes back into English. (And we never hung out with the Marotta side of the family because they never got over the divorce.) 

Kálmán (Coloman) the Learned (b 1070 r. 1095-1116). The historians are mixed in the evaluation of Kálmán’s reign. Generally, they are favorable. His emphasis on learning and education easily stemmed from his own physical handicaps. He survived and ascended the crown on the basis of his wits, not his strength.  1 denar (Huszar 37)

Louis I of Anjou (b 1326 r 1342-1384). …  he also confirmed the liberties of the Hungarian nobility at the Diet of 1351, emphasizing the equal status of all noblemen. At the same Diet, he …confirmed the right to free movement for all peasants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_I_of_Hungary

The Saracen’s head on the obverse is supposedly a pun on the name of courtier Count Szerecsen. However, the etymology of the family name likely points back to “Moors” from Constantinople.

1 denar Obv :MONETA LUDOVICI. Rev: REGIS HVNGARIE

Maximilian II (1527-1576 r 1562-1576) “Though a Habsburg and a Catholic, he approached the Lutheran Imperial estates with a view to overcome the denominational schism,… He also was faced with the ongoing Ottoman–Habsburg wars and rising conflicts with his Habsburg Spain cousins… Maximilian failed to achieve his three major aims: rationalizing the government structure, unifying Christianity, and evicting the Turks from Hungary… 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor

1 denier 0.52 grams 15.8mm 1568 Kremnitz 

Malcontents Revolt 

1, 10, and 20 Poltura.  The 1 is struck as expected. The 10 and 20 were rolled.  

1 Obv Mary with Sword and Christ Child HVGARIAE PATRONA. Rev Coat of Arms POLTURA 1706. 10- and 20-poltura PRO LIBERTATE (date) Coat of Arms. The Malcontents were Hungarian nobles who sought to re-establish themselves after the Turks were pushed out of Hungary by the Hapsburg armies. Their leader was Prince Ferenc II Rákóczi. The “Rákóczi March” is best known from its use in Hector Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust(1846). It may date only to 1730, but always has been identified with Hungarian nationalism, especially in resistance to the Hapsburgs. 

1848 Revolution

“When France sneezes, Europe catches cold.” Liberal, nationalist revolts broke out across Europe, the political expression of Romanticism that was typified by the music of Chopin and Liszt, and paintings of Eugene Delecroix, iconically, Liberty Leading the People(1830). 

Left (six kreutzer; billon silver; .220 fine Craig 67)

Top

VALTO PENZ (“draft money”) 6 Coat of Arms K MAGYAR KIRALYI (of the Hungarian king).

Bottom

HAT KRAJCZÁR 1848 

Right (20 Kreutzer silver Craig 69)

Obv: V FERD MAGY H T ORSZ KIRÁLYA ERD N FEJED (Ferdinand V, Hungarian, Croatian (Hrvetska) and Slavic (Toth) Countries King [and of] Transylvania (Erdély) Grand Prince.

Rev:MAGY.OR.VÉDŐJE 1848 SZ.MÁRIA IST. ANNYA (Hungary’s national protector 1848 Saint Mary God’s Mother) (These two legends and translations from Numista.com)

Ferdinand V actually abdicated in 1848, giving the crown to Franz Josef. As with other revolts, for example Texas against Mexico, the first claim was for a prior constitutional legitimacy. 

The Hapsburg Dual Monarchy. 

Following the collapse of the 1848 Revolution, continued pressure for reform won the Hungarians special status in a sham dual monarchy in which their “king” was the crown prince of Austria. As Austria moved into the modern world of steam engines and indoor plumbing, the currency was reformed in 1892 from the Florin-Kreutzer (forint-krajczár) silver-copper to corona-heller (korona-filler; filler from German “vierer” = “fourer” or 4-penny groschen). 

Left top left : obverse Ferenc Joszef I (Imperial Kaiser of Austria Czechs Transylvania Hungary Croatia Serbia Dalmatia Apostolic King) Right top left reverse Hungarian Kingdom 1879. 

Left top Right: 4 Kreuzer coat of arms.

Left bottom Left: 1 korona on Latin Monetary system; about 20 cents US.

Left bottom right: MAGYAR KIRALYI VALTOPENZ (Hungarian royal draft money, i.e., base metal nickel token like a US 5-cent, nickel two of which get you a silver dime; in this case 100 copper filler to the silver korona ).

Right bottom right: 10 filler.

The Twentieth Century: Fascism... Communism...
Left MAGYAR KIRALYSAG (Hungarian Kingdom. Actually a fascist "regency" holding place for a missing king). 1 Pengö The word "pengö" while loosely derived perhaps from "pfennig" is an onomatopoeia for "bingle" meaning that it rang like silver versus collapsing like paper. This coin was 0.640 fine, 0.1029 troy oz actual silver weight.

Not that the Reds do not appreciate expediency. Center: Kossuth Lajos obverse; national coat of arms reverse. 5 Forint 1947 .1929 troy oz net silver as 12 grams 0.500 fine. (The coins of 1946 were 20 grams 0.835 fine Latin Monetary Standard but communism is expensive.) "MAGYAR KÖZTÁRSASÁG" (Hungarian Republic. But you need to understand the root word KÖZ as in  "community" and "collective" and from there to "village" and thence "public" things.

Far right. Commorative for Sándor Csoma de Kőrös who taught himself philology and then walked to Tibet in search of the ancestral home of the Hungarians. It was not there... but he did write the first western dictionary and grammar of the Tibetan language while in the employ of the British consulate. Reverse legend is MAGYAR NEPKÖZTÁRSASÁG (Hungarian People's Republic.)

When first issued in 1914, it was worth 50 korona, about $10 US.

They lost the war, but could have won the peace. 

It was just that fascism got in the way.

 10 Pengö 1936

 Inflation after World War II. Tied to Germany by ideology, Hungary killed her Jews and Gypsies and sent her soldiers to the Eastern Front. When she signed a separate peace with the USSR in 1945 to forestall a Russian occupation, Germany invaded Hungary and finished the job. Assuming that you can always make soup from the bones that were picked clean, the Russians moved in. One Billion... One Billion Millions... and 100, 000 New Billions. Gotta give the engraver credit for working through hard times.

10 Forint 1969. Face: Sándor Petőfi, national poet, revolutionary from 1848. Ironic on many levels as he likely died in Russia, captured after the Battle of Segesvar, when the Russians came to the aid of the Austrian monarchy.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Linguistics Debate: What Colors are Your Rainbow?

The Living Fish Swims Under Water

Forbidden Planet

My Grandmother and Science

Sándor Kőrösi Csoma

The Akkadian Roots of Modern Semitic Languages

Why Do Young Women Growl?

If you listen to young women, about age 35 and below, you will notice that they growl.  They also end every sentence and many phrases with an uplifting question tone.  The two mannerisms combine to deliver a distinctly female way of talking that is also demarcated by age. Whatever their other sins, Sarah Palin and Elizabeth Warren do not growl.

You can hear this on the radio, especially news radio, and most especially on public radio.  I do not know that this affectation is a cultural consequence of progressivism.  But that is where I hear it because that is what I listen to on the radio.  We have a Fox radio affiliate here in Austin, KLBJ-AM/FM, but the only deejays I hear there are middle aged white men.  And I do believe that this does cross ethnic lines: from certainly some to perhaps many young Black women who are college educated also mimic this linguistic artifact.

I noticed this first perhaps five years ago.  But thinking back, I suspect that this began in California with the “Valley Girls” of the 1970s.  I finally decided to log a few convenience samplings for my citations. We have several non-profit radio stations here in Austin, and our NPR affliate is KUT-FM.

KUT Kate McKee

“Why Don’t Austin Community College Trustees Represent Specific Districts?”

(October 20, 2016)

http://kut.org/post/why-dont-austin-community-college-trustees-represent-specific-districts

KUT  Audrey McGlinchy

(Audrey is from Brooklyn, NY)

http://kut.org/post/why-dont-austin-community-college-trustees-represent-specific-districts

KUT Ashley Lopez

“What Mexico Can Teach Texas About Birth Control”

http://kut.org/post/what-mexico-can-teach-texas-about-birth-control

NPR All Things Considered

Melissa Block

“Going for the Gold…”

(September 8, 2016)

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetorch/2016/09/08/493111873/after-going-for-gold-athletes-can-feel-the-post-olympic-blues

What is interesting here is that the first two women that she interviews also growl.

NPR Rae Ellen Bichell

http://www.npr.org/people/488507788/rae-bichell

NPR Here and Now

Sarah Cliff

Perhaps the best offender I found right away is Alyssa Rosenberg  of the Washington Post. She was interviewed for her series “IN POP CULTURE, THERE ARE NO BAD POLICE SHOOTINGS:  DRAGNETS, DIRTY HARRYS AND DYING HARD: PART III” which was published on Wednesday, October 26, 2016, and for which she was interviewed on NPR’s “All Things Considered” Thursday, October 27, 2016, by Kelly McEvers. McEvers also growls, but Rosenberg is deep into it. Here: http://www.npr.org/2016/10/27/499637421/washington-post-reporter-explores-how-pop-culture-influences-views-of-police

In this last example, the interviewer, McEvers, growls in a more typical fashion, at the end of sentences or at the end of significant clauses within sentences.

I could suggest several origins.  For one thing, we all project tentative, unproven beliefs. “I think, like, maybe, there is no God?, in the traditional sense?, but there might be a Higher Power? out there on, like, a higher metaphysical? plane.”  That just begs for growling and upward tones.  Valley Girls of the 1970s would have been unsure about homework but certain about make-up and clothing, like ya know what I mean?

Regardless of the etiology of this linguistic disease – if it is that and not a mutation? with survival benefits?—it remains a cultural artifact.  I first learned of this studying Japanese.  (I had two college classes in "Japanese for Business" before working for Kawasaki and Honda.)  Japanese women speak in different tones than Japanese men. They also have different words for the same things.  I understand that this phenomenon of gender differentiation in active language is not limited to the Japanese, only that I learned of it while studying their language and culture.

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS

The Virtues of Aviation Culture   

Police in a Global Culture 

A Culture of Reality, Reason, and Freedom
The Problem of Cultural Patrimony

Where the Only Law is Right

Back In The Saddle Again Recorded by Gene Autry Written by Ray Whitley and Gene Autry C               G7      C     I'm back in the saddle again F                       C      Out where a friend is a friend           F            Where the longhorn cattle feed        C            A7             On the lowly Jimson Weed D7                     G7                   I'm back in the saddle again C          G7         C       Riding the range once more F               C      Toting my old forty-four.           F   Where you sleep out every night           C           A7   And  the only law is right D7          G7      C      Back in the saddle again        F Whoopi-ty-aye-oh     C Rocking to and fro                    G7   Back in the saddle again  C      F               C  Whoopi-ty-aye-yay I go own my way  D7          G7      C   Back in the saddle again Chords for guitar from County Classic Song Lyrics.  [Lyrics edited - MEM]

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS

From Texas to the Moon with John Leonard Riddell

A Forensics Bibliography

Central Texas Bee Rescue

A Visitor from the CIA

Back in the Saddle Again

The Influence of Ayn Rand's Objectivism

On May 14 of this year, the Ayn Rand Institute announced total sales for all of the author’s books for the year 2012 at one million copies.  Of those, Atlas Shrugged sold 359,105 behind 2009 (best ever) and 2011 (second place).  According to them “Rand’s books have sold a total of 29,500,000 copies.”  I believe that total sales of all books by and about Ayn Rand probably exceed 40 million.  That said, the number of active “Rand fans” is probably one-tenth of that, at most.

The ARI released these sales tallies back on April 7, 2008:

1- We the Living - 3 million

2- Anthem- 4 million

3- The Fountainhead - 6.5 million

4- Atlas Shrugged - 6 million

5- For the New Intellectual - 1 million

6- Virtue of Selfishness- 1.5 million

7- Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal - .650 million

8- The Romantic Manifesto - .350 million

Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart find the remnants of
John Galt's Motor in Atlas Shrugged, Part 1.

Since then, other sources such as The Economist reported "over half a million" copies of Atlas Shrugged sold in 2009. Similar reports gave 445 thousand for 2011.  The 2012 volume narrowly outpaced 2010’s purchases of 350,000.  That comes to 1.65 million, a 27% increase since 2008.  Extrapolating a 25% increase across the eight most popular books yields these estimates:

1- We the Living – 3.75 million

2- Anthem- 5 million

3- The Fountainhead – 8.1 million

4- Atlas Shrugged – 7.5 million

5- For the New Intellectual – 1.25 million

6- Virtue of Selfishness- 1.8 million

7- Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal - .810 million

8- The Romantic Manifesto - .437 million

The total (28.647 million) is close to the ARI number of 29 million.  However, it does not take into account 30 other books. 

9. Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology by Ayn Rand

10. Philosophy: Who Needs It? by Ayn Rand

11. Return of the Primitive (formerly The New Left: the Anti-Industrial Revolution) by Ayn Rand

12. The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought by Ayn Rand, et al

13. Early Ayn Rand vol. 1-

14. Three Plays- (Early Ayn Rand vol. 2)

15. The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z by Harry Binswanger

16. Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q&A by Robert Mayhew

17. Who is Ayn Rand? by Nathaniel Branden and Barbara Branden

18. The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand edited by by Douglas J. Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen

19. The Psychology of Self Esteem by Nathaniel Branden

20. What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi

21. Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (film and accompanying book) by Michael Paxton

22. Judgment Day: My Years with Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden

23. The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden

24. Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical by Chris Matthew Sciabarra

25. The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics by James S. Valliant

26. Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns

27. Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller

28. Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty

29. It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille

30. Is Objectivism a Religion? by Albert Ellis

31. Objectivism in One Lesson by Bernstein

32. On Ayn Rand by Gotthelf

33. Ayn Rand and Alienation by Greenberg

34. Ayn Rand and Business by Geiner and Rinni

35. The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley

36. Metaethics, Egoism, and Virtue by Gotthelf and Lennox

37. With Charity Toward None by William F. O'Neill

38. Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics by Tara Smith

39. Blue Water Comics Female Force #1 (May 2011): Ayn Rand by John Blundell, et al.
40. Anthem (Graphic Novel) Charles Santino and Joe Staton (New American Library).

[Addendum: Since the original posting, I found these, the first two of which I should have known.]
41. Ayn Rand Explained: From Tyranny to Tea Party (2012) Merrill, Ronald E., Chicago, IL : Open Court, 2012.
42.  Ayn Rand nation : the hidden struggle for America's soul (2012) Gary Weiss, New York : St. Martin's Press, 2012.
43. Ayn Rand and alienation : the Platonic idealism of the objectivist ethics and a rational alternative by Sid Greenberg. San Francisco : Greenberg, c1977.

[And again, at the library today (August 3), I found five more at the University of Texas library. In addition to Who is Ayn Rand? (#17 above), the Brandens also wrote three other books, one of which prompted another book in response.]
44.  The Ayn Rand Companion by Mimi Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
45.  Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand by Mini Reisel Gladstein
46.  Ayn Rand by Tibor Machan
47.  Essays on We the Living by Robert Mayhew
48.  The Fountainheads: Wright, Rand, the FBI and Hollywood by Donald Leslie Johnson
49.  Judgment Day by Nathaniel Branden
50.  My Years with Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden
51.  The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden

[August 10, 2013]
52. Ayn Rand: In Her Own Words (DVD: 72 mins), John Little, Northern River Productions (2011).
53. Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed. Marlene Podritske and Peter Schwartz, eds. Lexington Books, 2009.

[September 14, 2014] On MSK's Objectivist Living site, contributor Jerry Biggers told of this:

54.  The Vision of Ayn Rand: The Basic Principles of Objectivism, by Nathaniel Branden. LaissezFaire Books/Cobden Press, 2009. Also issued in Kindle eBook format on Amazon.com in 2014. This is a transcription of the original NBI set of lectures.

Through all of this, realize that the Ayn Rand Institute is the single largest consumer of books by Ayn Rand.  They buy them from the publisher and then give them away.

October 14, 2010 ARI Press release

ARI has given high school teachers more than 185,000 copies of “Atlas Shrugged” to date, and over 1.6 million copies of Rand’s “Anthem” and “The Fountainhead.”

Yet another detail expands the number of readers over the numbers of books sold. When teaching middle school in Albuquerque 2002-2003, I saw cartloads of Anthem coming and going as assigned reading along with other easy books such as Call of the Wild and Animal Farm. How many young people come to Ayn Rand's ideas via this route cannot be tallied by book sales alone.  Considering the assigned reading from middle school through college, we have to at least recognize the CliffsNotes, Monarch Notes, and Sparknotes for Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. 

A recent Zogby Poll raised more questions.  Touted by the ARI in a November 30, 2010 press release, the poll found “that 29 percent of the 2,100 adult respondents have read Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged.” Of those who read the book, 49 percent agreed that Atlas Shrugged changed the way they think about political or ethical issues….”

And that is all well and fine, but the same poll claimed: “… that 21 percent of respondents have read Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead; 7 percent, Anthem; 4 percent, We the Living 3 percent, The Virtue of Selfishness; and 3 percent Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. “  Contrasted against the number of middle school and high school students who are assigned Anthem every year, those numbers seem like under-reports compared to the tallies for Atlas Shrugged.

The numbers at the top actually indicate that anyone who buys Anthem, The Fountainhead, or Atlas Shrugged will buy the other two, though not always.  Sales of Atlas slightly outpace the others. 

I also believe from the numbers that while only a few may buy Philosophy: Who Needs It? or Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology these are acquired by those who are interested in the technical philosophy having been introduced to it from the novels.  That points to the claim at the top that 40 million books sold might reveal only four million people with a passion for Ayn Rand: I own 20 different titles by and about. 

In addition, I have three copies of Atlas Shrugged: a 95-cent "gold cover" paper back 7th printing November 1960; another ppb to read and annotate; and the Highbridge Company audio tapes read by Edward Herrmann.  I have both ppb and hard cover editions of The Fountainhead, Anthem, Virtue of Selfishness, and Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal (I bought it as a first edition because I was taking the "Basic Principles" class when it came out.)  And not tallied above, I have a bootleg VHS tape of Ayn Rand's last public lecture. Among the other ephemera is a January 1944 Reader's Digest with Rand's essay, "The Only Path to Tomorrow: The Moral Basis of Individualism".   And I archive two copies of "Female Force" (in bags, with boards, of course).

(This post was edited from my April 6, 2013, commentary "Objectivism as a Strong Undercurrent" on the Rebirth of Reason website.)

Also on Necessary Facts

Ayn Rand and Star Trek

That Goddam Ayn Rand Book

Reflections on Atlas Shrugged Part 1 

Objectivism and the Gold Standard 

To Make Money 

Apollo 11: Task Accomplished

"That we had seen a demonstration of man at his best, no one could doubt—this was the cause of the event’s attraction and of the stunned numbed state in which it left us. And no one could doubt that we had seen an achievement of man in his capacity as a rational being—an achievement of reason, of logic, of mathematics, of total dedication to the absolutism of reality."-- Ayn Rand

Celebration at Mission Contol.
Note that the banner says "Task Accomplished"
but no day follows the month in the date.

Completing my master's I had a class in advanced criminology theory.  The professor, Gregg Barak, prided himself on engagement; and he varied his approaches to the material from class to class.  Our semester, we read post modernism: so-called "science" is only a Euro-centric, phallo-centric narrative denying voice to oppressed peoples. The scientific method, according to them, does not work and is not how scientists actually accomplish whatever it is they do.  My reply - which brought neither agreement nor denial from my classmates, only disinterested stares - was that when the elevator technician tunes the drive motors that bring us to the seventh floor without fail, she does not rely on an arbitrary narrative. And if the elevator should fail, a fail-safe mechanism prevents us from falling to our deaths, again, not a mere choice of ideological symbols. 

The supreme achievement of the Apollo missions - and the NASA space program in general; and, in fact, the entire global enterprise of space - is a singularity symbolizing all of the very many achievements the we create every day.  We deliver these to each other in exchange and all parties benefit incrementally.  We take that for granted.  But every now and then, it helps to ponder and reflect on the depth and complexity of our time spent at work.

Aboard the International Space Station July 19, 2013

Four page excerpt from "Apollo and Dionysus" from The Ayn Rand Reader by Gary Hull and Leonard Peikoff on Google Books here.
The recorded original lecture "Apollo and Dionysus" on the website of the Ayn Rand Institute here.

The Success of the WEIRD People

No single cause explains our standard of living.  From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, the industrial revolution, and now the information age, the upward rise in standard of living is the material evidence of deeper attributes.  The aggregate of those beliefs – largely unstated and accepted as “normal” – does explain our success. 

“The Weirdest People in the World: How representative are experimental findings from American university students? What do we really know about human psychology?” by Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heine, and Ara Norenzayan (all from the University of British Columbia Department of Psychology and  published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol33; 2-3 , June 2010, pp 61-83; available from the authors here) explains that we have

made ourselves – the Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic people – the standard for “human nature.”  They say cogently that psychological experiments which supposedly tease out the basic patterns of “human nature” really tell us only about a small group: undergraduates in psychology departments, their friends, and sometimes their young children. The paper demonstrates that most people on Earth seem to hold entirely different views than we do.  And “views” is the basic problem.  What we accept as standard optical illusions work differently or not at all among different peoples around the world.  The paper is well worth the time to read through and mark up.

I found in their thesis the unintended corollary argument that our success is the result of those very attributes that set us apart from everyone else on Earth. 

The acronym WEIRD is nice, but does not place the elements in order.  Being educated first led to our becoming rich, and therefore democratic.  That this happened in “the west” (northwest Europe and the English colonies) is observable; but why here and not elsewhere may be an intractable problem.  The Renaissance started in Italy.  The Enlightenment was born in France.  How the Glorious Revolution of 1688 allowed James Watt’s steam engine to empower the middle class of America is complicated; but the facts are observable.

Start with education.  Other cultures have knowledge, even broad, deep, complicated, and consequential.  The difference is that ours is arguable.  It is important that charlatans such as Paul Feyerabend and Jacques Lacan be kept around to remind us of our limitations.  After all, their claims were rooted in the statements of real scientists who themselves explained that discovering deep truths did not come from following the recipe of the scientific method.  (See The Double Life of RNA by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and PBS Nova about the work of Nobel laureate Thomas R. Cech.)  Insight and intuition nonetheless must be subjected specifically to that scientific method – and must be validated by independent testing.  We test our beliefs and abandon the ones that do not work.  It is not perfect or consistent; but in the main, culturally, our society operates by trial and error, argument and proof.

In her foundation essay, “Bourgeois Virtues,” (on her website here) Dierdre McCloskey pointed out that while the patrician Achilles was subjective and the peasant St. Francis was objective, the bourgeois Benjamin Frankin was conjective.  In other words: price is open to discussion.  She also noted that in commerce we do not convince (conquer), but rather, persuade (soften; sweeten).  That is different from the attitudes of other peoples. 

In the Ultimatum game, one party is given a largess with instructions to share whatever they want with the other party.  If the other party feels that the split is inequitable, no one gets anything.  In our society, most people draw the line at a 70-30 share.  If the recipient does not get at least 30%, then no deal.  Some other people are more rational in the pure market sense: any gain is better than nothing. Some other cultures feel that the distributor is under no obligation to share anything.  Some people (especially in Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia) will engage in "altruistic punishment" where they would pay out from their own share without recompense to bring a loss to an unfair distributor. 

It is hard to say whether any of those is provably better.  But our willingness to accept a 70-30 split but deny an unfair cut explains much about how our democracy works: majority rule; minority rights.  

The fact that 90% of the world is not "individualistic” does explain why 90% of the world is poor.  But that is changing.  Global capitalism brings American (western) values to everyone.  Not every person in every place needs to adopt every aspect of our culture, but education, wealth, individualism, democracy seem to be mutually integrated.