Everyone should read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Okay, it’s not a particularly well-written book. It’s not a page-turner. In fact, it’s a bit of a bore at times, with
paper-thin characters, poor dialogue, and an often ridiculous story line.
So why should everyone read it?
Well, for a book written in the 1950s it’s eerily prescient
about what we face today, and what our future looks like if things continue as
they are.
There’s also a possible lesson in it for the Obama
administration.
The premise is simple:
In the name of “fairness,” the government assumes greater control over
everything. It takes over big chunks of the
auto industry. It forces policies on
other businesses to dictate who they can hire, how much they pay their
employees, how much owners can make, the prices they can charge for their
products, the types of products they can make, etc.
Sound familiar so far?
Government social policy becomes predicated on the theory
that the more “needy” you are, the more you get at the expense of people who
have more.
So victimhood is celebrated – and rewarded – as people are
incented to prove they are needier than the next person. That’s because the more you need, the more
you get.
Conversely, the more you have, the more you have to “share.” If you have a job and someone doesn’t, you’re
obligated to support them. There’s no
incentive to actually work for anything anymore. Why bother when the government
will take from someone else to give to you?
Before long, the majority of the population is dependent on
the government.
Neediness guides government policy on business as well. So it props up failing businesses with
political suck – like those with unions – by taking away from and penalizing successful
businesses. It forces successful
businesses into bad business deals and unnecessary featherbedding to reward
political cronies and “level the playing field.”
Special incentives are given to favored businesses, and
special penalties and restrictions are placed on businesses who have too much
or are otherwise out of favor.
Again, sound familiar?
Successful business people are vilified by the government and
its followers as greedy, uncaring and selfish.
The more successful in business someone has been – and the more money
they’ve made – the greater the vilification. The fact that these business people risked their own capital, worked hard and built businesses based on their own inventions and ideas is irrelevant. Quaint, almost.
The government aggressively promotes the belief that the
successful only got that way by being unfair to others – employees and
competitors. Government needs to step in
to restore “fairness.” And equal outcomes for all, earned or
not. The public eats it up.
“Fairness” and having
a social conscience – such as acquiescing to whatever the government and the
needy want – is preferable to capitalist greed.
Even if you go broke in the process.
Then the unthinkable happens. All those vilified business owners,
entrepreneurs, inventors, artists and others who actually create things simply
quit.
They disappear. They
are nowhere to be found. They decide enough is enough and walk away.
The government and the needy are outraged. There’s no one left to milk for supporting
their social agenda. No one to
efficiently run the businesses they’d always counted on to be a constant source
of paid jobs. No one who actually works
and produces anymore.
All that’s left is the government and the people dependent
on it.
Kind of where we seem to be headed today.
And if that doesn’t scare the crap out of you – think about
this: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand was
written in the 1950s. We’ve had over 60
years to see this coming.
Pick it up. Give it a
read. Not a great book, but if you don’t
find yourself shaking your head and saying “oh my God” a few times in the
process, I’ll be truly surprised.
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