Utopia Talk - Politics - From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

Welcome to the Utopia Forums! Register a new account
The current time is Fri Jun 27 17:07:52 2025

Utopia Talk / Politics / From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

Hot Rod
Member Mon Jan 24 21:08:30

A bit long, but a good read.

'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

By STEPHEN MOORE

Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read "Atlas Shrugged" a "virgin." Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only "Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster.

Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that "Atlas Shrugged" parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.

Rand, who had come to America from Soviet Russia with striking insights into totalitarianism and the destructiveness of socialism, was already a celebrity. The left, naturally, hated her. But as recently as 1991, a survey by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club found that readers rated "Atlas" as the second-most influential book in their lives, behind only the Bible.

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the "Anti-Greed Act" to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel's promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the "Equalization of Opportunity Act" to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act," aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn't Hank Paulson think of that?

These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act." Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion -- in roughly his first 100 days in office.

The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you. That's the justification for the $2 trillion of subsidies doled out already to keep afloat distressed insurance companies, banks, Wall Street investment houses, and auto companies -- while standing next in line for their share of the booty are real-estate developers, the steel industry, chemical companies, airlines, ethanol producers, construction firms and even catfish farmers. With each successive bailout to "calm the markets," another trillion of national wealth is subsequently lost. Yet, as "Atlas" grimly foretold, we now treat the incompetent who wreck their companies as victims, while those resourceful business owners who manage to make a profit are portrayed as recipients of illegitimate "windfalls."

When Rand was writing in the 1950s, one of the pillars of American industrial might was the railroads. In her novel the railroad owner, Dagny Taggart, an enterprising industrialist, has a FedEx-like vision for expansion and first-rate service by rail. But she is continuously badgered, cajoled, taxed, ruled and regulated -- always in the public interest -- into bankruptcy. Sound far-fetched? On the day I sat down to write this ode to "Atlas," a Wall Street Journal headline blared: "Rail Shippers Ask Congress to Regulate Freight Prices."

In one chapter of the book, an entrepreneur invents a new miracle metal -- stronger but lighter than steel. The government immediately appropriates the invention in "the public good." The politicians demand that the metal inventor come to Washington and sign over ownership of his invention or lose everything.

The scene is eerily similar to an event late last year when six bank presidents were summoned by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to Washington, and then shuttled into a conference room and told, in effect, that they could not leave until they collectively signed a document handing over percentages of their future profits to the government. The Treasury folks insisted that this shakedown, too, was all in "the public interest."

Ultimately, "Atlas Shrugged" is a celebration of the entrepreneur, the risk taker and the cultivator of wealth through human intellect. Critics dismissed the novel as simple-minded, and even some of Rand's political admirers complained that she lacked compassion. Yet one pertinent warning resounds throughout the book: When profits and wealth and creativity are denigrated in society, they start to disappear -- leaving everyone the poorer.

One memorable moment in "Atlas" occurs near the very end, when the economy has been rendered comatose by all the great economic minds in Washington. Finally, and out of desperation, the politicians come to the heroic businessman John Galt (who has resisted their assault on capitalism) and beg him to help them get the economy back on track. The discussion sounds much like what would happen today:

Galt: "You want me to be Economic Dictator?"

Mr. Thompson: "Yes!"

"And you'll obey any order I give?"

"Implicitly!"

"Then start by abolishing all income taxes."

"Oh no!" screamed Mr. Thompson, leaping to his feet. "We couldn't do that . . . How would we pay government employees?"

"Fire your government employees."

"Oh, no!"

Abolishing the income tax. Now that really would be a genuine economic stimulus. But Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Washington want to do the opposite: to raise the income tax "for purposes of fairness" as Barack Obama puts it.

David Kelley, the president of the Atlas Society, which is dedicated to promoting Rand's ideas, explains that "the older the book gets, the more timely its message." He tells me that there are plans to make "Atlas Shrugged" into a major motion picture -- it is the only classic novel of recent decades that was never made into a movie. "We don't need to make a movie out of the book," Mr. Kelley jokes. "We are living it right now."

Mr. Moore is senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal editorial page.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html

Aeros
Member Mon Jan 24 21:25:49
You cannot be fucking serious. Ayn Rand was not an economist by any stretch of the imagination. She was also a retarded philosopher. Objectivism is nothing more then Nietzsche lite for people who wish to pretend they at least care (a little) about other people. AKA, Hypocrites, like yourself Rod.

Furthermore, its very easy to take Rand's ideas in the opposite direction, like the makers of the Bioshock video games did. Having read Rand myself, I can tell you right now her ideal heroes are the dreams of a fevered imagination. People are not the way she envisioned. Her heroes are impossible, and her villains likewise. I doubt you will find a cabal of Christians and Buddhists plotting to destroy the world, which is pretty much what she believed those two religions were doing.

As to this article itself, its further tripe from a typical Randian who has been unable to comprehend the inherent failings of his intellectually juvenile philosophy.

Aeros
Member Mon Jan 24 21:27:51
At least Sam Adams is honest with his beliefs economically speaking. People he has no use for should die. If you seriously want to subscribe to these ethics, read up on Nietzsche and go forth to find your master morality. Don't waste your time reading the ramblings of a half mad Russian.

Sam Adams
Member Mon Jan 24 21:34:58
"People he has no use for should die."

not quite. Our tax dollars should not be spent on people I have no use for. If they cannot take care of themselves they can die. If they have friends and family that take care of them, fine. If not, so be it.

Social Darwinism.

miltonfriedman
Member Mon Jan 24 21:56:08
do you agree with the author's assertion that any rand is an economist, pedo rod?

Hot Rod
Member Mon Jan 24 22:10:59

I read the article and just scanned it again, I don't recall him saying she was an economist. I may have missed it.

Can you point out the passage?

Aeros
Member Mon Jan 24 22:18:01
"Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement."

miltonfriedman
Member Mon Jan 24 22:19:43
The author claimed that Obama's economic policies are depicted in Atlas Shrugged and that her beliefs are important to advance the economy. Do you agree?

Hot Rod
Member Mon Jan 24 22:24:42

I'm not an economist, but I have been watching the economic devastation in this country for decades.

You don't have to be an economist to see that all you have to do is pay attention.

She is a philosopher, not trained in the intricacies of a formal education in economics.

What the writer *did* say was, "Rand, who had come to America from Soviet Russia with striking insights into totalitarianism and the destructiveness of socialism, was already a celebrity."

That was in 1926 IIRC when the USSR was just nine years old.

miltonfriedman
Member Mon Jan 24 22:26:40
So you disagree with the author, yes?

Hot Rod
Member Mon Jan 24 22:29:02

mf, please go away. You have nothing to contribute to this conversation.

miltonfriedman
Member Mon Jan 24 22:29:31
Why are you afraid to say whether you agree or disagree with the author?

Hot Rod
Member Mon Jan 24 22:32:19

I told you what would happen if you addressed a post top me with an insult in it.

I'm through with you.

miltonfriedman
Member Mon Jan 24 22:35:04
So you ran away after you got caught for posting something you disagree with?

What are you afraid of, pedo rod?

Aeros
Member Mon Jan 24 22:40:07
Facts. We should give him credit though, he is stepping outside the echo chamber to converse with us. Unfortunately, the places he gets his information from have filled his head with cognitive dissonance.

miltonfriedman
Member Mon Jan 24 22:41:19
Well, he is not very familiar with things said by people other than Glenn Beck.

Sstrickland
New Member Tue Jan 25 04:07:33
That's quite obnoxious, FTS.

jergul
Member Tue Jan 25 04:55:43
Trying to think what I know of Ayn Rand

Huge Vagina
Conceived out of wedlock
Came to US under visitors visa, then gained citizenship *WITHOUT LEAVING AND APPLYING FOR LANDED ALIEN STATUS*
About it. She sure seems like a slut.

CrownRoyal
Member Tue Jan 25 05:24:45
She was an illegal??? Everyone knows the vagina story but this is outrageous. She must have hated the united states.

milton bradley
Member Tue Jan 25 05:33:16
On the topic of Ayn Rands huge cunt, is it true that hr once almost read a book?

show deleted posts

Hot Rod Member	Mon Jan 24 21:08:30 A bit long, but a good read. 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years By STEPHEN MOORE Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read "Atlas Shrugged" a "virgin." Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only "Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster. Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that "Atlas Shrugged" parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit. Rand, who had come to America from Soviet Russia with striking insights into totalitarianism and the destructiveness of socialism, was already a celebrity. The left, naturally, hated her. But as recently as 1991, a survey by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club found that readers rated "Atlas" as the second-most influential book in their lives, behind only the Bible. For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism. In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the "Anti-Greed Act" to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel's promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the "Equalization of Opportunity Act" to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act," aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn't Hank Paulson think of that? These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act." Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion -- in roughly his first 100 days in office. The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you. That's the justification for the $2 trillion of subsidies doled out already to keep afloat distressed insurance companies, banks, Wall Street investment houses, and auto companies -- while standing next in line for their share of the booty are real-estate developers, the steel industry, chemical companies, airlines, ethanol producers, construction firms and even catfish farmers. With each successive bailout to "calm the markets," another trillion of national wealth is subsequently lost. Yet, as "Atlas" grimly foretold, we now treat the incompetent who wreck their companies as victims, while those resourceful business owners who manage to make a profit are portrayed as recipients of illegitimate "windfalls." When Rand was writing in the 1950s, one of the pillars of American industrial might was the railroads. In her novel the railroad owner, Dagny Taggart, an enterprising industrialist, has a FedEx-like vision for expansion and first-rate service by rail. But she is continuously badgered, cajoled, taxed, ruled and regulated -- always in the public interest -- into bankruptcy. Sound far-fetched? On the day I sat down to write this ode to "Atlas," a Wall Street Journal headline blared: "Rail Shippers Ask Congress to Regulate Freight Prices." In one chapter of the book, an entrepreneur invents a new miracle metal -- stronger but lighter than steel. The government immediately appropriates the invention in "the public good." The politicians demand that the metal inventor come to Washington and sign over ownership of his invention or lose everything. The scene is eerily similar to an event late last year when six bank presidents were summoned by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to Washington, and then shuttled into a conference room and told, in effect, that they could not leave until they collectively signed a document handing over percentages of their future profits to the government. The Treasury folks insisted that this shakedown, too, was all in "the public interest." Ultimately, "Atlas Shrugged" is a celebration of the entrepreneur, the risk taker and the cultivator of wealth through human intellect. Critics dismissed the novel as simple-minded, and even some of Rand's political admirers complained that she lacked compassion. Yet one pertinent warning resounds throughout the book: When profits and wealth and creativity are denigrated in society, they start to disappear -- leaving everyone the poorer. One memorable moment in "Atlas" occurs near the very end, when the economy has been rendered comatose by all the great economic minds in Washington. Finally, and out of desperation, the politicians come to the heroic businessman John Galt (who has resisted their assault on capitalism) and beg him to help them get the economy back on track. The discussion sounds much like what would happen today: Galt: "You want me to be Economic Dictator?" Mr. Thompson: "Yes!" "And you'll obey any order I give?" "Implicitly!" "Then start by abolishing all income taxes." "Oh no!" screamed Mr. Thompson, leaping to his feet. "We couldn't do that . . . How would we pay government employees?" "Fire your government employees." "Oh, no!" Abolishing the income tax. Now that really would be a genuine economic stimulus. But Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Washington want to do the opposite: to raise the income tax "for purposes of fairness" as Barack Obama puts it. David Kelley, the president of the Atlas Society, which is dedicated to promoting Rand's ideas, explains that "the older the book gets, the more timely its message." He tells me that there are plans to make "Atlas Shrugged" into a major motion picture -- it is the only classic novel of recent decades that was never made into a movie. "We don't need to make a movie out of the book," Mr. Kelley jokes. "We are living it right now." Mr. Moore is senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal editorial page. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html
Aeros Member	Mon Jan 24 21:25:49 You cannot be fucking serious. Ayn Rand was not an economist by any stretch of the imagination. She was also a retarded philosopher. Objectivism is nothing more then Nietzsche lite for people who wish to pretend they at least care (a little) about other people. AKA, Hypocrites, like yourself Rod. Furthermore, its very easy to take Rand's ideas in the opposite direction, like the makers of the Bioshock video games did. Having read Rand myself, I can tell you right now her ideal heroes are the dreams of a fevered imagination. People are not the way she envisioned. Her heroes are impossible, and her villains likewise. I doubt you will find a cabal of Christians and Buddhists plotting to destroy the world, which is pretty much what she believed those two religions were doing. As to this article itself, its further tripe from a typical Randian who has been unable to comprehend the inherent failings of his intellectually juvenile philosophy.
Aeros Member	Mon Jan 24 21:27:51 At least Sam Adams is honest with his beliefs economically speaking. People he has no use for should die. If you seriously want to subscribe to these ethics, read up on Nietzsche and go forth to find your master morality. Don't waste your time reading the ramblings of a half mad Russian.
Sam Adams Member	Mon Jan 24 21:34:58 "People he has no use for should die." not quite. Our tax dollars should not be spent on people I have no use for. If they cannot take care of themselves they can die. If they have friends and family that take care of them, fine. If not, so be it. Social Darwinism.
miltonfriedman Member	Mon Jan 24 21:56:08 do you agree with the author's assertion that any rand is an economist, pedo rod?
Hot Rod Member	Mon Jan 24 22:10:59 I read the article and just scanned it again, I don't recall him saying she was an economist. I may have missed it. Can you point out the passage?
Aeros Member	Mon Jan 24 22:18:01 "Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement."
miltonfriedman Member	Mon Jan 24 22:19:43 The author claimed that Obama's economic policies are depicted in Atlas Shrugged and that her beliefs are important to advance the economy. Do you agree?
Hot Rod Member	Mon Jan 24 22:24:42 I'm not an economist, but I have been watching the economic devastation in this country for decades. You don't have to be an economist to see that all you have to do is pay attention. She is a philosopher, not trained in the intricacies of a formal education in economics. What the writer did say was, "Rand, who had come to America from Soviet Russia with striking insights into totalitarianism and the destructiveness of socialism, was already a celebrity." That was in 1926 IIRC when the USSR was just nine years old.
miltonfriedman Member	Mon Jan 24 22:26:40 So you disagree with the author, yes?
Hot Rod Member	Mon Jan 24 22:29:02 mf, please go away. You have nothing to contribute to this conversation.
miltonfriedman Member	Mon Jan 24 22:29:31 Why are you afraid to say whether you agree or disagree with the author?
Hot Rod Member	Mon Jan 24 22:32:19 I told you what would happen if you addressed a post top me with an insult in it. I'm through with you.
miltonfriedman Member	Mon Jan 24 22:35:04 So you ran away after you got caught for posting something you disagree with? What are you afraid of, pedo rod?
Aeros Member	Mon Jan 24 22:40:07 Facts. We should give him credit though, he is stepping outside the echo chamber to converse with us. Unfortunately, the places he gets his information from have filled his head with cognitive dissonance.
miltonfriedman Member	Mon Jan 24 22:41:19 Well, he is not very familiar with things said by people other than Glenn Beck.
Sstrickland New Member	Tue Jan 25 04:07:33 That's quite obnoxious, FTS.
jergul Member	Tue Jan 25 04:55:43 Trying to think what I know of Ayn Rand Huge Vagina Conceived out of wedlock Came to US under visitors visa, then gained citizenship WITHOUT LEAVING AND APPLYING FOR LANDED ALIEN STATUS About it. She sure seems like a slut.
CrownRoyal Member	Tue Jan 25 05:24:45 She was an illegal??? Everyone knows the vagina story but this is outrageous. She must have hated the united states.
milton bradley Member	Tue Jan 25 05:33:16 On the topic of Ayn Rands huge cunt, is it true that hr once almost read a book?
	show deleted posts

Your Name:
Your Password:
Your Message: