|
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.
![[Atlas Shrugged]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AI826_dgmoor_DV_20090108211701.jpg)
Getty Images
The art for a 1999 postage stamp.
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:
--------------------------------
nick
--------------------------------
New York Drug Treatment Centers-New York Drug Treatment Centers
|