Homestead mailing list

[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

>From this am WSJ .  I am a fan of Rand, as are many others.  But, I am one 
>(rarely mentioned, but 'is' mentioned in this editorial); that has a problem 
>with a seemingly lack of compassion in her ideology.  Anyway, this is an 
>interesting commentary of how today's events seem to mirror much of the 
>fictional plot lines in Atlas Shrugged....bobf  
>http://cartoonbox.slate.com/stevekelley/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


OPINION: DE GUSTIBUS JANUARY 9, 2009 

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


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?mod=googlenews_wsj