I commend your folks for making it. If anyone REALLY understood Ayn Rand’s point, they would see that the current economic system is rigged. Ask your father if he has to pay lobbyist to protect his business interest from his competitors lobbyist. When business as usual means companies using the power of the gun to gain competitive advantage over another, we have EXACTLY what Ayn Rand was talking about.

He may be an unemployed software engineer FOR A REASON. I’m going John Galt in my own way (as an Aerospace Engineer), because I’m tired of the “exempt” status being used to enslave my labor. How is it a technician, with no ambition to achieve a higher level of understanding in his field, can make more than me if he simply works hourly and I work as an exempt employee. How is that anywhere near right?

Our current economic system rewards managers that “use” their employees and throws them away. It’s like a race car team. I’d rather work for people who treat their team like a daily driver than the race car engine that is discarded at the end of the race.

Finally. This financial disaster is making people realize that the parasite is the one at the head of the corporation, sucking at the teat of American Labor, stealing the hard earned wealth of the retiree’s 401K, and shuffling the deck of a three card Monty game that was quietly being dealt out behind the closed doors of the Bush administration.

The point of the book is not to “go john galt” but to explain what happens when the government destroys the successful to give to the unproductive poor: you get an unproductive, poor country.

You get what you reward.

I do not think you understand just how close true communism and Rand’s IDEALIZED version of capitalism are the same. Communists have recognized her works and philosophy to be completely in agreement to Marx and Engel’s. The symantics are a bit different but they both agree that…

1. government should be de-centralized and run by those with the most ability not political power. The the government should not get in the way of those who have the most creative power. There should be no laws restraining individuals to be as creative as successful as possible.

2. Her vision of capitalism is merely communism ran by those with the most ability. Using “friendly” competition to keep everything in check. As we know in a true capitalist system that the only goal is to be greedy and to generate money and not to fulfill a human need or desire as the main goal. In Rand’s writings about capitalism she sees the consumers as the guilty party for bringing the nation to its knees where the truth is that companies in collusion with each other are often the main source of fraud and economic disasters. (ie… savings and loans, sub-prime mortagages….etc).

3. A real monetary system based on a commodity (gold, silver, oil). Remember they were all hording gold and copper in the gulch… because the printed money wasn’t backed by anything that their word (bonds)…. well we have that system now. And our currency only looses value and is based on debt from the government (bonds). The Federal Reserve is in complete control of the monetary system and it is ran by too few private bankers that have their own agendas. Marx writes about this at length in his book Das Kapitol…. it was required reading for me at university and it is the most accurate depiction of how a true capitalist system really works… Rand knew this but decided that the competitive nature of humans would keep things in check… but she also knew that if the monetary system is manipulated by government than the economy will always be at the mercy of the government. This is how governments control and manipulate the economy… If we all used something like gold or silver then that has no national origin… no way of the government to control.

4. That the only thing that has ever made humans lives better is technology. Not religion or money. Knowledge and the application of knowledge is humanities greatest and highest value. Both Rand and Communists see technology as the most important priority for a society.

5. Rand and communists both recognize that religion and mysticism is the ultimate enemy of man’s mind. That if you are willing to believe in someone that is not logical and is based in fiction or “faith” than how could you be logical about all other dealings? This was RAND’s ultimate lesson in Atlas Shruged and why it is so much more than just a tale about government and economics…. it is a philosophical treatise. Only us that are completely logical about every aspect in our lives are full human beings. Those who have sold out a part of their thinking to some ‘higher?” power have not come to terms that we are that higher power. And that as a race… we are an even higher power.

Please go back and read and listen to the chapter “this is John Galt speaking” put up the whole unabridged 50+ pages of that chapter on this site. Let your readers who are going to “GO GALT” read this and see that they HAVE to abandon mysticism and religion and embrace logic and thinking. They have to embrace philosophy and technology as the pinacle of the human race and not some all knowing and vengeful deity. The computer… airplane… skyscrapper… were the result of man’s mind…. not mysticism. No amount of praying will ever help you invent something out of nothing… only your creative mind will.

It really wasn’t until after reading much of Ayn Rand’s works that I formed my own personal philosophy of self assurance and self esteem based on my own thoughts and not those inherited from a god or a preacher or a guru. Rand has the same goals as us communists and Technocrats… a society with a fair economic system (be it capitolist, communist, or a non-monetary system); free from the restraints of religion and mysticism; where technology and philosophy thrive and are rewarded accordingly.

Just as a disclaimer….. When I mention Communism I am not referring to other past governments such as the USSR.. North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Italy, or China. I am referring to a system of economy and social order that is de-centralized. Those governments are or were Fascist and Authoritarian. Some of them are more successful than others in fulfilling Marx’s vision of economics but were ultimately unsustainable for a list of reasons… except that of maybe Cuba and Venezuela. The type of communism that I am talking about is more grass-roots… Think “credit unions, public works, wikipedia, linux, and doctor owned hospitals” These are organizations that are run by them selves and are either owned and operated by its employees not share holders and investors. The incentive of the workers is to keep the business going and thriving and they are in direct control over the profits. No government intervention telling them what to do just workers doing the right thing and decisions to get the work done and to take responsibility. The goal of communism is sustainability… not rapid growth and generating as much money as possible.

Feel free to email me if you want to discus this at length.
Brian

A strike is also a completely empty gesture if you’re not actually taking the risk of losing something in the act of protest. A strike among laborers has meaning because they know they are losing wages or even their jobs to make a point.

What would corporate guys even be striking against? Ineffectiveness of the labor structure they themselves designed? Government “bailout”. That’s called a plain old protest

When you work in a corporate office and won’t lose anything by striking, it’s not a strike, it’s a fucking vacation and it’s an incredible insult to those who’ve lose their livelihoods and lives in pursuit of protections thereof. Pretending for even a second that corporate employees have something worth striking about just reveals the enormous sense of entitlement these people have.

I guess Rand only oppose entitlement only if you can’t afford to buy what isn’t outright given to you.

Ayn Rand will always be popular among awkward teenagers who can’t get a date, but our real oppressor is not government — Our real oppressor is Big Business, which is largely after all not a noble fraternity of creative, hardworking knights but rather a scheming, lawless bunch of lazy, sociopathic criminals (see B. Madoff, K. Lay, etc. etc.)

Haven’t we noticed? Most rich people are rich because they inherited their connections, or are lucky. The system is heavily weighted so that the rich get richer.

“We don’t need you? You have nothing to offer us?” Don’t be bloody silly. Everybody knows that Big Business needs Cheap Labor, and lots of it.