jonb
06-25-2002, 05:15 PM
Last week I finished Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It had been on my "To Read" list for a while and I'm glad I finally got around to it. I found much in this book that applied to my own life.
For those of you unfamiliar with Rand and her works, she would be, as DHS put it right here on this site, the "Libertarian's Libertarian". Both Atlas Shrugged and her other very popular novel, The Fountainhead, espouse the belief that the less government intervenes in peoples' lives, the better. I read The Fountainhead quite a while ago so I can't do much of a comparison but I do remember how much I enjoyed that book and expected much of Atlas Shrugged.
I was not disappointed. Atlas Shrugged deserves to be read by every person alive. Although preachy at times, it does a good job of exposing some of the ridiculousness of logic that is prevalent in our society. Rand does a remarkable job of stating things unequivocally, often the thing that people think internally but never dare to speak because they go against common opinion. For instance, I would infer after reading this book that Rand does not believe all people to be "equal". Yet, you would hear very few people utter such a statement these days.
I also have a lot of respect for Rand's economic viewpoints. My favorite thing is her definition of capitalism. It really is a free market economy with no government intervention. Many people claim to be for capitalism thinking that it is essentially "pro-business". Indirectly perhaps it is but I believe that Rand's definition is neither "pro-business" nor "anti-business". She would believe either to be a perversion of the term "capitalism". Rather she would prefer business to fend for itself with no help or hinderance from government.
Let me take two recent cases to point out where I believe Rand would differ from many of today's "capitalists". First, the government bailout of the airlines. I feel that Rand would have been strongly against that. Would some of the airlines have failed in lieu of a bailout? Probably yes. But Rand would point out that if their was demand for their product then either new companies or existing companies would have risen to meet that demand. In the end we would have been left with a stronger system than what we had before. A system more able to deal with events such as those that happened on 09/11.
Another example would be the state of the steel industry. The steel industry has pushed for years for government not to impose strong environmental regulations on it. At the same time, the steel industry has lobbied for strong tariff which it recently received. To me that seems hypocritical and I think it would to Rand as well. Tariffs are a means of government intervention that interferes with the free market functioning.
The only potential weakness that I could see in Rand's argument was that she fails to address what should happen (if anything) when a company does something that damages society, nature, etc. Certainly there need to be child labor laws, some environmental restrictions, etc. Rand seems to be of the "all or nothing" mindset which I don't agree with.
I've rambled on for a long time here so I'll stop and just tell everyone to read Atlas Shrugged if they get a chance. It's a menacing read at over 1,000 pages so here is a good alternative for those of you with long commutes. Go to www.blackstoneaudiobooks.com where you can rent the unabridged copy of the book for a total of $34 or so (it comes in three parts). It's about 60 hours in total which means that if you have a half hour commute each day you'll be done with it in 12 weeks! Just something to think about... :)
For those of you unfamiliar with Rand and her works, she would be, as DHS put it right here on this site, the "Libertarian's Libertarian". Both Atlas Shrugged and her other very popular novel, The Fountainhead, espouse the belief that the less government intervenes in peoples' lives, the better. I read The Fountainhead quite a while ago so I can't do much of a comparison but I do remember how much I enjoyed that book and expected much of Atlas Shrugged.
I was not disappointed. Atlas Shrugged deserves to be read by every person alive. Although preachy at times, it does a good job of exposing some of the ridiculousness of logic that is prevalent in our society. Rand does a remarkable job of stating things unequivocally, often the thing that people think internally but never dare to speak because they go against common opinion. For instance, I would infer after reading this book that Rand does not believe all people to be "equal". Yet, you would hear very few people utter such a statement these days.
I also have a lot of respect for Rand's economic viewpoints. My favorite thing is her definition of capitalism. It really is a free market economy with no government intervention. Many people claim to be for capitalism thinking that it is essentially "pro-business". Indirectly perhaps it is but I believe that Rand's definition is neither "pro-business" nor "anti-business". She would believe either to be a perversion of the term "capitalism". Rather she would prefer business to fend for itself with no help or hinderance from government.
Let me take two recent cases to point out where I believe Rand would differ from many of today's "capitalists". First, the government bailout of the airlines. I feel that Rand would have been strongly against that. Would some of the airlines have failed in lieu of a bailout? Probably yes. But Rand would point out that if their was demand for their product then either new companies or existing companies would have risen to meet that demand. In the end we would have been left with a stronger system than what we had before. A system more able to deal with events such as those that happened on 09/11.
Another example would be the state of the steel industry. The steel industry has pushed for years for government not to impose strong environmental regulations on it. At the same time, the steel industry has lobbied for strong tariff which it recently received. To me that seems hypocritical and I think it would to Rand as well. Tariffs are a means of government intervention that interferes with the free market functioning.
The only potential weakness that I could see in Rand's argument was that she fails to address what should happen (if anything) when a company does something that damages society, nature, etc. Certainly there need to be child labor laws, some environmental restrictions, etc. Rand seems to be of the "all or nothing" mindset which I don't agree with.
I've rambled on for a long time here so I'll stop and just tell everyone to read Atlas Shrugged if they get a chance. It's a menacing read at over 1,000 pages so here is a good alternative for those of you with long commutes. Go to www.blackstoneaudiobooks.com where you can rent the unabridged copy of the book for a total of $34 or so (it comes in three parts). It's about 60 hours in total which means that if you have a half hour commute each day you'll be done with it in 12 weeks! Just something to think about... :)