Atlas Shrugged - Hmm, that's pretty narrow minded

The main theme of Atlas Shrugged, as I understand it, is that we should all give praise to the awesome creators of enterprise, because they are the source from which all good things spring.

Well, that's not an entirely accurate assumption on the part of Ayn Rand.

I'm just going to throw out a few examples.

If I buy a farm in 1850, then my heirs discover through absolute chance that it has oil on it, then I wouldn't call that an example of "Atlas". It's more like dumb-luck.

Workers and owners are a matched set...sorta. I'd actually argue that the owners are generally more replaceable than the workers. One exception would be for inventors, and another would be for those making a HUGE gamble.

If the owners of all toilet paper factories burned down their facilities, there would be plenty of people ready to build and take the place of those owners. These people would come from that pesky, unappreciative class of bitches, referred to by the politically-correct term "workers". They would be composed of all the people with a decent chunk of money and drive who have been shut out by the previous owners with whom they could not compete. Chances are, they couldn't compete because the previous owners had an established market, or they used predatory business tactics. (BTW, my father's grocery store was bankrupted by the local corporate grocery chain through predatory business tactics. Should we praise these tyrants as Atlas?)

If you argue that the new group of owners are once again members of Atlas, then I beg to differ. These owners are derived from the poorer class that would be THRILLED to make more money, even at a higher tax rate and more regulation.

I'm certainly not arguing in favor of more taxes, or that I think the government uses taxes efficiently. I'm a real capitalist to the bone, except that I cannot tolerate unethical behavior. One example: Microsoft censoring the Internet for China. It's treason, if you ask me, or at least socialist.

But I think it's a fallacy to think that all the owners are such a bunch of gifts to our society. The world is owned by the people, and not by corporations or business owners. The people decide what is best. The people decided that capitalism is a cool system, but they still have the right to change their mind anytime they want. Certainly there may be repercussions if they change their minds, but there are always repercussions to everything. That's that whole "Liberty" thing that we all love.

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." -The U.S. Declaration of Independence.

If the people don't like the new situation, they can change it. Society IS the people. Sure, a tyrannical government can stomp dissent down, but if everybody dissents and refuses to cooperate, then what is the point of the government? Try stopping dissent when your army won't go along.