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| Topic: Atlas Shrugged Off Taxes | |
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Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged" fantasizes a world in which anti-government citizens reject taxes and regulations, and "stop the motor" by withdrawing themselves from the system of production. In a perverse twist on the writer's theme the prediction is coming true. But instead of productive people rejecting taxes, rejected taxes are shutting down productive people.
Perhaps Ayn Rand never anticipated the impact of unregulated greed on a productive middle class. Perhaps she never understood the fairness of tax money for public research and infrastructure and security, all of which have contributed to the success of big business. She must have known about the inequality of the pre-Depression years. But she couldn't have foreseen the concurrent rise in technology and globalization that allowed inequality to surge again, more quickly, in a manner that threatens to put the greediest offenders out of our reach. Ayn Rand's philosophy suggests that average working people are 'takers.' In reality, those in the best position to make money take all they can get, with no scruples about their working class victims, because taking, in the minds of the rich, serves as a model for success. The strategy involves tax avoidance, in numerous forms. Corporations Stopped Paying In the past twenty years, corporate profits have quadrupled while the corporate tax percent has dropped by half. The payroll tax, paid by workers, has doubled. In effect, corporations have decided to let middle-class workers pay for national investments that have largely benefited businesses over the years. The greater part of basic research, especially for technology and health care, has been conducted with government money. Even today 60% of university research is government-supported. Corporations use highways and shipping lanes and airports to ship their products, the FAA and TSA and Coast Guard and Department of Transportation to safeguard them, a nationwide energy grid to power their factories, and communications towers and satellites to conduct online business. In effect, corporations have decided to let middle-class workers pay for national investments that have largely benefited businesses over the years. Yet as corporate profits surge and taxes plummet, our infrastructure is deteriorating. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $3.63 trillion is needed over the next seven years to make the necessary repairs. Turning Taxes Into Thin Air Corporations have used numerous and creative means to avoid their tax responsibilities. They have about a year's worth of profits stashed untaxed overseas. According to the Wall Street Journal, about 60% of their cash is offshore. Yet these corporate 'persons' enjoy a foreign earned income exclusion that real U.S. persons don't get. Corporate tax haven ploys are legendary, with almost 19,000 companies claiming home office space in one building in the low-tax Cayman Islands. But they don't want to give up their U.S. benefits. Tech companies in 19 tax haven jurisdictions received $18.7 billion in 2011 federal contracts. A lot of smaller companies are legally exempt from taxes. As of 2008, according to IRS data, fully 69% of U.S. corporations were organized as nontaxable businesses. There's much more. Companies call their CEO bonuses "performance pay" to get a lower rate. Private equity firms call fees "capital gains" to get a lower rate. Fast food companies call their lunch menus "intellectual property" to get a lower rate. Prisons and casinos have stooped to the level of calling themselves "real estate investment trusts" (REITs) to gain tax exemptions. Stooping lower yet, Disney and others have added cows and sheep to their greenspace to get a farmland exemption. The Richest Individuals Stopped Paying The IRS estimated that 17 percent of taxes owed were not paid in 2006, leaving an underpayment of $450 billion. The revenue loss from tax havens approaches $450 billion. Subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes are estimated at over $1 trillion. Expenditures overwhelmingly benefit the richest taxpayers. In keeping with Ayn Rand's assurance that "Money is the barometer of a society's virtue," the super-rich are relentless in their quest to make more money by eliminating taxes. Instead of calling their income 'income,' they call it "carried interest" or "performance-based earnings" or "deferred pay." And when they cash in their stock options, they might look up last year's lowest price, write that in as a purchase date, cash in the concocted profits, and take advantage of the lower capital gains tax rate. So Who Has To Pay? Middle-class families. The $2 trillion in tax losses from underpayments, expenditures, and tax havens costs every middle-class family about $20,000 in community benefits, including health care and education and food and housing. Schoolkids, too. A study of 265 large companies by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) determined that about $14 billion per year in state income taxes was unpaid over three years. That's approximately equal to the loss of 2012-13 education funding due to budget cuts. And the lowest-income taxpayers make up the difference, based on new data that shows that the Earned Income Tax Credit is the single biggest compliance problem cited by the IRS. The average sentence for cheating with secret offshore financial accounts, according to the Wall Street Journal, is about half as long as in some other types of tax cases. Atlas Can't Be Found Among the Rich Only 3 percent of the CEOs, upper management, and financial professionals were entrepreneurs in 2005, even though they made up about 60 percent of the richest .1% of Americans. A recent study found that less than 1 percent of all entrepreneurs came from very rich or very poor backgrounds. Job creators come from the middle class. So if the super-rich are not holding the world on their shoulders, what do they do with their money? According to both Marketwatch and economist Edward Wolff, over 90 percent of the assets owned by millionaires are held in a combination of low-risk investments (bonds and cash), personal business accounts, the stock market, and real estate. Ayn Rand's hero John Galt said, "We are on strike against those who believe that one man must exist for the sake of another." In his world, Atlas has it easy, with only himself to think about. Paul Buchheit Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/13-1 |
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Edited by
JustDukkyMkII
on
Tue 05/14/13 01:29 AM
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People have to realize that corporations were originally created to provide a service...They were intended to be our servants, but the greedy capitalists in charge of the corporations, following the defined sole ethic of shareholder profit, managed to accumulate enough capital to take control of the people's governments thru their banking enterprises.
People forgot that the government is their public trustee and is supposed to govern their affairs for them. Once that was forgotten, it became easy to believe the government governs the people (instead of the other way around), and those charged with the keeping of the public trust, who were put in charge of it, took charge of the public itself and have since "governed" in BREACH OF the public TRUST. It was easy to bamboozle the people, since most now consider themselves almost the "useless eaters" they are considered to be by the banks & other corporations who now think they own the people (because they robbed them of their natural wealth), when in truth it is the people who "own" them (check legal definition for "own" and note that it is no longer holding property by right, but holding it in trust, which implies you are liable for property you own. In reality, it is the people (all of them) who own the banks and corporations, but thanks to the word magic of city slicker "legalese" employed by government hired lawyers to frame "statutory law", the people have been conned into seeing themselves as the servants of the corporations instead of the true owners and masters of them. This allows the people (thru their own ignorance) to be robbed because they have been deceived (by the legalese) and have forgotten who they really are, which is "THE PEOPLE", also called "the boss" and the OWNER of ALL the corporations and governments who rob them. When the people finally wise up and take the charge of human beings away from the corporations by pulling their own care out of the hands of greedy corporations & banks, things will improve...We might even have world peace for a change. I LIVE for the day that the people finally wake up and smell the coffee...Things will NOT improve until they do. The problem is, nobody seems to have any guts or enough smarts to know who they really are, or they're too damned lazy or scared to do anything (or maybe even enjoy being a child of the state "nanny" who looks after them). If you do nothing as an individual (hoping somebody else is gonna do it for you) then nothing will be done for the whole bloody world, because the whole bloody world thinks like you. So if you are lazy or scared and not doing anything to straighten out the mess, preferring to look as asleep as everyone else looks, then you are NOT one of US...you are one of THEM; the enemy we have to vanquish. We have a choice...we can all unite as individual people and work together to make the world a better place, or we can let greed, enmity, division, apathy and fear, unite to kill us all while the planet we live on rots, and will until we are gone and there are no more corporations to rape & abuse it for private profit. |
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Have any of you read Rand at all?
 What both of you describe is Fascism,NOT Capitalism!  So,you want to tell me that Politicians ought to lead those Corporations! Actually they do,along with their Cronies,and look at the mess they made! |
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Edited by
Conrad_73
on
Tue 05/14/13 02:25 AM
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Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged" fantasizes a world in which anti-government citizens reject taxes and regulations, and "stop the motor" by withdrawing themselves from the system of production. In a perverse twist on the writer's theme the prediction is coming true. But instead of productive people rejecting taxes, rejected taxes are shutting down productive people. Perhaps Ayn Rand never anticipated the impact of unregulated greed on a productive middle class. Perhaps she never understood the fairness of tax money for public research and infrastructure and security, all of which have contributed to the success of big business. She must have known about the inequality of the pre-Depression years. But she couldn't have foreseen the concurrent rise in technology and globalization that allowed inequality to surge again, more quickly, in a manner that threatens to put the greediest offenders out of our reach. Ayn Rand's philosophy suggests that average working people are 'takers.' In reality, those in the best position to make money take all they can get, with no scruples about their working class victims, because taking, in the minds of the rich, serves as a model for success. The strategy involves tax avoidance, in numerous forms. Corporations Stopped Paying In the past twenty years, corporate profits have quadrupled while the corporate tax percent has dropped by half. The payroll tax, paid by workers, has doubled. In effect, corporations have decided to let middle-class workers pay for national investments that have largely benefited businesses over the years. The greater part of basic research, especially for technology and health care, has been conducted with government money. Even today 60% of university research is government-supported. Corporations use highways and shipping lanes and airports to ship their products, the FAA and TSA and Coast Guard and Department of Transportation to safeguard them, a nationwide energy grid to power their factories, and communications towers and satellites to conduct online business. In effect, corporations have decided to let middle-class workers pay for national investments that have largely benefited businesses over the years. Yet as corporate profits surge and taxes plummet, our infrastructure is deteriorating. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $3.63 trillion is needed over the next seven years to make the necessary repairs. Turning Taxes Into Thin Air Corporations have used numerous and creative means to avoid their tax responsibilities. They have about a year's worth of profits stashed untaxed overseas. According to the Wall Street Journal, about 60% of their cash is offshore. Yet these corporate 'persons' enjoy a foreign earned income exclusion that real U.S. persons don't get. Corporate tax haven ploys are legendary, with almost 19,000 companies claiming home office space in one building in the low-tax Cayman Islands. But they don't want to give up their U.S. benefits. Tech companies in 19 tax haven jurisdictions received $18.7 billion in 2011 federal contracts. A lot of smaller companies are legally exempt from taxes. As of 2008, according to IRS data, fully 69% of U.S. corporations were organized as nontaxable businesses. There's much more. Companies call their CEO bonuses "performance pay" to get a lower rate. Private equity firms call fees "capital gains" to get a lower rate. Fast food companies call their lunch menus "intellectual property" to get a lower rate. Prisons and casinos have stooped to the level of calling themselves "real estate investment trusts" (REITs) to gain tax exemptions. Stooping lower yet, Disney and others have added cows and sheep to their greenspace to get a farmland exemption. The Richest Individuals Stopped Paying The IRS estimated that 17 percent of taxes owed were not paid in 2006, leaving an underpayment of $450 billion. The revenue loss from tax havens approaches $450 billion. Subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes are estimated at over $1 trillion. Expenditures overwhelmingly benefit the richest taxpayers. In keeping with Ayn Rand's assurance that "Money is the barometer of a society's virtue," the super-rich are relentless in their quest to make more money by eliminating taxes. Instead of calling their income 'income,' they call it "carried interest" or "performance-based earnings" or "deferred pay." And when they cash in their stock options, they might look up last year's lowest price, write that in as a purchase date, cash in the concocted profits, and take advantage of the lower capital gains tax rate. So Who Has To Pay? Middle-class families. The $2 trillion in tax losses from underpayments, expenditures, and tax havens costs every middle-class family about $20,000 in community benefits, including health care and education and food and housing. Schoolkids, too. A study of 265 large companies by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) determined that about $14 billion per year in state income taxes was unpaid over three years. That's approximately equal to the loss of 2012-13 education funding due to budget cuts. And the lowest-income taxpayers make up the difference, based on new data that shows that the Earned Income Tax Credit is the single biggest compliance problem cited by the IRS. The average sentence for cheating with secret offshore financial accounts, according to the Wall Street Journal, is about half as long as in some other types of tax cases. Atlas Can't Be Found Among the Rich Only 3 percent of the CEOs, upper management, and financial professionals were entrepreneurs in 2005, even though they made up about 60 percent of the richest .1% of Americans. A recent study found that less than 1 percent of all entrepreneurs came from very rich or very poor backgrounds. Job creators come from the middle class. So if the super-rich are not holding the world on their shoulders, what do they do with their money? According to both Marketwatch and economist Edward Wolff, over 90 percent of the assets owned by millionaires are held in a combination of low-risk investments (bonds and cash), personal business accounts, the stock market, and real estate. Ayn Rand's hero John Galt said, "We are on strike against those who believe that one man must exist for the sake of another." In his world, Atlas has it easy, with only himself to think about. Paul Buchheit Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/13-1 Go out and by some of the Books,or borrow them from the Library! But you couldn't expect anything else coming out of Chicago!  That poor Soul is sorely confused,or more likely lying like heck! Yep,Best,you have read Marx,now you are really in need to read Rand! |
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I like this Guy.
Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/13-1 |
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I like this Guy. Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/13-1 Rand specifically was down on Corporation who make "DEALS" with Government! A Fact the good "Professor" carefully avoids to mention! |
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I like this Guy. Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/13-1 Rand specifically was down on Corporation who make "DEALS" with Government! A Fact the good "Professor" carefully avoids to mention! |
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I like this Guy. Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/13-1 Rand specifically was down on Corporation who make "DEALS" with Government! A Fact the good "Professor" carefully avoids to mention! uninformed idiot? , Somewhat over the top don't you think? Rand wasn't infallible |
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Edited by
Conrad_73
on
Tue 05/14/13 04:03 AM
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I like this Guy. Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/13-1 Rand specifically was down on Corporation who make "DEALS" with Government! A Fact the good "Professor" carefully avoids to mention! uninformed idiot? , Somewhat over the top don't you think? Rand wasn't infallible But definitely less fallible than that ranting lying Marxist Perfessor! Fact of the Matter is,Rand never proposed what that lying POS claims! I am glad her Writings are scaring the Pants of the Statists!
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Edited by
JustDukkyMkII
on
Tue 05/14/13 06:26 AM
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Have any of you read Rand at all? What both of you describe is Fascism,NOT Capitalism! So,you want to tell me that Politicians ought to lead those Corporations! Actually they do,along with their Cronies,and look at the mess they made! Et tu Bruté?...Me?... a statist? that's absolutely laughable...I can only think you're joking. I've looked into Rand and her "objectivism" (YAI...yet another "ism") and I have my own opinions about her philosophy and the philosophy of the hero-worshipping cult that follows her without a proper grounding in philosophy & logic. I think I've already expressed much of this in another post somewhere, didn't I? Be that as it may, I'd like you to really examine my post before this one and tell me how putting the public in charge of the public servants who work for them (voluntarily) is fascism. You are right that it isn't capitalism, but in my mind you are totally off-base calling it fascism. (As I see it, it is simply the freedom to contract with contractors.) You might make an argument that it could be Marxism, possibly even the kind of marxism that he himself envisioned (if we could ever know what that was from his books), but certainly not fascism, let alone Stalinism, Leninism, left-wing socialism, or communism as ever implemented or practiced in the real world. You won't need to make an argument that it is anti-capitalism...I'm guilty as charged, but then I'm anti-just-about-every-"ism". About the only "ism" I'm not "anti" is humanism... And I'm a bloody duck!... I just wish you humans would smarten up and quit killing one another over something as useless as claims of capital as private property. (or have the bankers already claimed most of it?) The great flaw of capitalism, is that it tries to privatize the common. What do we do when the Rothschilds et al claim all the air, water and land as their private property except to either beg/pay for enough air to breathe, water to drink, and land to live on...or move? Us ducks have no money to buy life's necessities the way you humans MIGHT...Don't we have a right to exist, or do we have to work to "earn our keep" and pay for the privilege of existing like humans do? So even though us ducks constitute another nation (species), I'd like to know how the humans' idiotic system of political and economic reasoning(?) respects our right to exist as a nation. Moreover, I know that it doesn't, but you humans seem to want to throw yourselves into greedy denial the minute someone speaks of sharing the common "property" and to keep claiming the common (which DOESN"T belong to you as property) as though it was all yours. The old "might makes right" philosophy has always been wrong. Might might make for power, oppression and murder, but it will NEVER make it right, no matter how many statutes the legal eagles write to make it so. The truth is that right is the true might and everyone should do right. Frankly it almost shocks me that your own implied social contract (natural law) might have to be imposed on humanity before it kills itself. Who could impose it if not you yourselves? Hey...I'm just trying to point out the logical flaws in human reasoning, so don't go sociopolitical on me, just think about what I say. Atlas isn't shrugging; he's laying down on the job and letting the world roll away. Who is gonna put him back to work? |
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Edited by
Conrad_73
on
Tue 05/14/13 07:40 AM
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Have any of you read Rand at all? What both of you describe is Fascism,NOT Capitalism! So,you want to tell me that Politicians ought to lead those Corporations! Actually they do,along with their Cronies,and look at the mess they made! Et tu Bruté?...Me?... a statist? that's absolutely laughable...I can only think you're joking. I've looked into Rand and her "objectivism" (YAI...yet another "ism") and I have my own opinions about her philosophy and the philosophy of the hero-worshipping cult that follows her without a proper grounding in philosophy & logic. I think I've already expressed much of this in another post somewhere, didn't I? Be that as it may, I'd like you to really examine my post before this one and tell me how putting the public in charge of the public servants who work for them (voluntarily) is fascism. You are right that it isn't capitalism, but in my mind you are totally off-base calling it fascism. (As I see it, it is simply the freedom to contract with contractors.) You might make an argument that it could be Marxism, possibly even the kind of marxism that he himself envisioned (if we could ever know what that was from his books), but certainly not fascism, let alone Stalinism, Leninism, left-wing socialism, or communism as ever implemented or practiced in the real world. You won't need to make an argument that it is anti-capitalism...I'm guilty as charged, but then I'm anti-just-about-every-"ism". About the only "ism" I'm not "anti" is humanism... And I'm a bloody duck!... I just wish you humans would smarten up and quit killing one another over something as useless as claims of capital as private property. (or have the bankers already claimed most of it?) The great flaw of capitalism, is that it tries to privatize the common. What do we do when the Rothschilds et al claim all the air, water and land as their private property except to either beg/pay for enough air to breathe, water to drink, and land to live on...or move? Us ducks have no money to buy life's necessities the way you humans MIGHT...Don't we have a right to exist, or do we have to work to "earn our keep" and pay for the privilege of existing like humans do? So even though us ducks constitute another nation (species), I'd like to know how the humans' idiotic system of political and economic reasoning(?) respects our right to exist as a nation. Moreover, I know that it doesn't, but you humans seem to want to throw yourselves into greedy denial the minute someone speaks of sharing the common "property" and to keep claiming the common (which DOESN"T belong to you as property) as though it was all yours. The old "might makes right" philosophy has always been wrong. Might might make for power, oppression and murder, but it will NEVER make it right, no matter how many statutes the legal eagles write to make it so. The truth is that right is the true might and everyone should do right. Frankly it almost shocks me that your own implied social contract (natural law) might have to be imposed on humanity before it kills itself. Who could impose it if not you yourselves? Hey...I'm just trying to point out the logical flaws in human reasoning, so don't go sociopolitical on me, just think about what I say. Atlas isn't shrugging; he's laying down on the job and letting the world roll away. Who is gonna put him back to work?  Yep,you sure have looked into Objectivism!Every word of your Post proves it! Especially the MIGHT is Right,as if Rand ever approved of Government Coercion! Only Statists do that!
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Edited by
Conrad_73
on
Tue 05/14/13 08:01 AM
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None of you Guys have read the Book,and that includes that Chicago Teacher!
'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years 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." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html Hey Virgins! Scared for your virginity? so you still think Government can fix what they Phlocked up in the first place? You really think Rand was the first one saying to just walk away? "I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces." -Étienne de La Boétie |
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Have any of you read Rand at all? What both of you describe is Fascism,NOT Capitalism! So,you want to tell me that Politicians ought to lead those Corporations! Actually they do,along with their Cronies,and look at the mess they made! Et tu Bruté?...Me?... a statist? that's absolutely laughable...I can only think you're joking. I've looked into Rand and her "objectivism" (YAI...yet another "ism") and I have my own opinions about her philosophy and the philosophy of the hero-worshipping cult that follows her without a proper grounding in philosophy & logic. I think I've already expressed much of this in another post somewhere, didn't I? Be that as it may, I'd like you to really examine my post before this one and tell me how putting the public in charge of the public servants who work for them (voluntarily) is fascism. You are right that it isn't capitalism, but in my mind you are totally off-base calling it fascism. (As I see it, it is simply the freedom to contract with contractors.) You might make an argument that it could be Marxism, possibly even the kind of marxism that he himself envisioned (if we could ever know what that was from his books), but certainly not fascism, let alone Stalinism, Leninism, left-wing socialism, or communism as ever implemented or practiced in the real world. You won't need to make an argument that it is anti-capitalism...I'm guilty as charged, but then I'm anti-just-about-every-"ism". About the only "ism" I'm not "anti" is humanism... And I'm a bloody duck!... I just wish you humans would smarten up and quit killing one another over something as useless as claims of capital as private property. (or have the bankers already claimed most of it?) The great flaw of capitalism, is that it tries to privatize the common. What do we do when the Rothschilds et al claim all the air, water and land as their private property except to either beg/pay for enough air to breathe, water to drink, and land to live on...or move? Us ducks have no money to buy life's necessities the way you humans MIGHT...Don't we have a right to exist, or do we have to work to "earn our keep" and pay for the privilege of existing like humans do? So even though us ducks constitute another nation (species), I'd like to know how the humans' idiotic system of political and economic reasoning(?) respects our right to exist as a nation. Moreover, I know that it doesn't, but you humans seem to want to throw yourselves into greedy denial the minute someone speaks of sharing the common "property" and to keep claiming the common (which DOESN"T belong to you as property) as though it was all yours. The old "might makes right" philosophy has always been wrong. Might might make for power, oppression and murder, but it will NEVER make it right, no matter how many statutes the legal eagles write to make it so. The truth is that right is the true might and everyone should do right. Frankly it almost shocks me that your own implied social contract (natural law) might have to be imposed on humanity before it kills itself. Who could impose it if not you yourselves? Hey...I'm just trying to point out the logical flaws in human reasoning, so don't go sociopolitical on me, just think about what I say. Atlas isn't shrugging; he's laying down on the job and letting the world roll away. Who is gonna put him back to work? |
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None of you Guys have read the Book,and that includes that Chicago Teacher! 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years 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." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html Hey Virgins! Scared for your virginity? so you still think Government can fix what they Phlocked up in the first place? You really think Rand was the first one saying to just walk away? "I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces." -Étienne de La Boétie |
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Edited by
HappyBun
on
Tue 05/14/13 08:08 AM
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Have any of you read Rand at all? What both of you describe is Fascism,NOT Capitalism! So,you want to tell me that Politicians ought to lead those Corporations! Actually they do,along with their Cronies,and look at the mess they made! Et tu Bruté?...Me?... a statist? that's absolutely laughable...I can only think you're joking. I've looked into Rand and her "objectivism" (YAI...yet another "ism") and I have my own opinions about her philosophy and the philosophy of the hero-worshipping cult that follows her without a proper grounding in philosophy & logic. I think I've already expressed much of this in another post somewhere, didn't I? Be that as it may, I'd like you to really examine my post before this one and tell me how putting the public in charge of the public servants who work for them (voluntarily) is fascism. You are right that it isn't capitalism, but in my mind you are totally off-base calling it fascism. (As I see it, it is simply the freedom to contract with contractors.) You might make an argument that it could be Marxism, possibly even the kind of marxism that he himself envisioned (if we could ever know what that was from his books), but certainly not fascism, let alone Stalinism, Leninism, left-wing socialism, or communism as ever implemented or practiced in the real world. You won't need to make an argument that it is anti-capitalism...I'm guilty as charged, but then I'm anti-just-about-every-"ism". About the only "ism" I'm not "anti" is humanism... And I'm a bloody duck!... I just wish you humans would smarten up and quit killing one another over something as useless as claims of capital as private property. (or have the bankers already claimed most of it?) The great flaw of capitalism, is that it tries to privatize the common. What do we do when the Rothschilds et al claim all the air, water and land as their private property except to either beg/pay for enough air to breathe, water to drink, and land to live on...or move? Us ducks have no money to buy life's necessities the way you humans MIGHT...Don't we have a right to exist, or do we have to work to "earn our keep" and pay for the privilege of existing like humans do? So even though us ducks constitute another nation (species), I'd like to know how the humans' idiotic system of political and economic reasoning(?) respects our right to exist as a nation. Moreover, I know that it doesn't, but you humans seem to want to throw yourselves into greedy denial the minute someone speaks of sharing the common "property" and to keep claiming the common (which DOESN"T belong to you as property) as though it was all yours. The old "might makes right" philosophy has always been wrong. Might might make for power, oppression and murder, but it will NEVER make it right, no matter how many statutes the legal eagles write to make it so. The truth is that right is the true might and everyone should do right. Frankly it almost shocks me that your own implied social contract (natural law) might have to be imposed on humanity before it kills itself. Who could impose it if not you yourselves? Hey...I'm just trying to point out the logical flaws in human reasoning, so don't go sociopolitical on me, just think about what I say. Atlas isn't shrugging; he's laying down on the job and letting the world roll away. Who is gonna put him back to work? I really like your postings. They are easy to read and all your own work , so much more honest than copy and paste . On top of all that I agree with most if not all of your work. You are a real asset to the political threads. A breath of fresh air. Are you an American? If you are then America is in need of millions like you. |
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Edited by
JustDukkyMkII
on
Tue 05/14/13 08:16 AM
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Have any of you read Rand at all? What both of you describe is Fascism,NOT Capitalism! So,you want to tell me that Politicians ought to lead those Corporations! Actually they do,along with their Cronies,and look at the mess they made! Et tu Bruté?...Me?... a statist? that's absolutely laughable...I can only think you're joking. I've looked into Rand and her "objectivism" (YAI...yet another "ism") and I have my own opinions about her philosophy and the philosophy of the hero-worshipping cult that follows her without a proper grounding in philosophy & logic. I think I've already expressed much of this in another post somewhere, didn't I? Be that as it may, I'd like you to really examine my post before this one and tell me how putting the public in charge of the public servants who work for them (voluntarily) is fascism. You are right that it isn't capitalism, but in my mind you are totally off-base calling it fascism. (As I see it, it is simply the freedom to contract with contractors.) You might make an argument that it could be Marxism, possibly even the kind of marxism that he himself envisioned (if we could ever know what that was from his books), but certainly not fascism, let alone Stalinism, Leninism, left-wing socialism, or communism as ever implemented or practiced in the real world. You won't need to make an argument that it is anti-capitalism...I'm guilty as charged, but then I'm anti-just-about-every-"ism". About the only "ism" I'm not "anti" is humanism... And I'm a bloody duck!... I just wish you humans would smarten up and quit killing one another over something as useless as claims of capital as private property. (or have the bankers already claimed most of it?) The great flaw of capitalism, is that it tries to privatize the common. What do we do when the Rothschilds et al claim all the air, water and land as their private property except to either beg/pay for enough air to breathe, water to drink, and land to live on...or move? Us ducks have no money to buy life's necessities the way you humans MIGHT...Don't we have a right to exist, or do we have to work to "earn our keep" and pay for the privilege of existing like humans do? So even though us ducks constitute another nation (species), I'd like to know how the humans' idiotic system of political and economic reasoning(?) respects our right to exist as a nation. Moreover, I know that it doesn't, but you humans seem to want to throw yourselves into greedy denial the minute someone speaks of sharing the common "property" and to keep claiming the common (which DOESN"T belong to you as property) as though it was all yours. The old "might makes right" philosophy has always been wrong. Might might make for power, oppression and murder, but it will NEVER make it right, no matter how many statutes the legal eagles write to make it so. The truth is that right is the true might and everyone should do right. Frankly it almost shocks me that your own implied social contract (natural law) might have to be imposed on humanity before it kills itself. Who could impose it if not you yourselves? Hey...I'm just trying to point out the logical flaws in human reasoning, so don't go sociopolitical on me, just think about what I say. Atlas isn't shrugging; he's laying down on the job and letting the world roll away. Who is gonna put him back to work? Yep,you sure have looked into Objectivism!Every word of your Post proves it! Especially the MIGHT is Right,as if Rand ever approved of Government Coercion! Only Statists do that! If you had read my post perceptively, you'd know that it doesn't matter whether Rand approved or disapproved of government coercion (and of course I'm as sure as you are that she disapproved of it, just as you and I do); the logical consequence of her unstated presumption that capitalism is valid and right, when integrated into the philosophy of her objectivism, allows the (fallacious) "proof" that capitalism is "right" in terms of natural law, which is a conclusion that is provably fallacious in terms of the logical reasoning of natural law. 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. What does that tell you? (Think in terms of her popularity and religious cults.) |
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Edited by
Conrad_73
on
Tue 05/14/13 08:36 AM
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Have any of you read Rand at all? What both of you describe is Fascism,NOT Capitalism! So,you want to tell me that Politicians ought to lead those Corporations! Actually they do,along with their Cronies,and look at the mess they made! Et tu Bruté?...Me?... a statist? that's absolutely laughable...I can only think you're joking. I've looked into Rand and her "objectivism" (YAI...yet another "ism") and I have my own opinions about her philosophy and the philosophy of the hero-worshipping cult that follows her without a proper grounding in philosophy & logic. I think I've already expressed much of this in another post somewhere, didn't I? Be that as it may, I'd like you to really examine my post before this one and tell me how putting the public in charge of the public servants who work for them (voluntarily) is fascism. You are right that it isn't capitalism, but in my mind you are totally off-base calling it fascism. (As I see it, it is simply the freedom to contract with contractors.) You might make an argument that it could be Marxism, possibly even the kind of marxism that he himself envisioned (if we could ever know what that was from his books), but certainly not fascism, let alone Stalinism, Leninism, left-wing socialism, or communism as ever implemented or practiced in the real world. You won't need to make an argument that it is anti-capitalism...I'm guilty as charged, but then I'm anti-just-about-every-"ism". About the only "ism" I'm not "anti" is humanism... And I'm a bloody duck!... I just wish you humans would smarten up and quit killing one another over something as useless as claims of capital as private property. (or have the bankers already claimed most of it?) The great flaw of capitalism, is that it tries to privatize the common. What do we do when the Rothschilds et al claim all the air, water and land as their private property except to either beg/pay for enough air to breathe, water to drink, and land to live on...or move? Us ducks have no money to buy life's necessities the way you humans MIGHT...Don't we have a right to exist, or do we have to work to "earn our keep" and pay for the privilege of existing like humans do? So even though us ducks constitute another nation (species), I'd like to know how the humans' idiotic system of political and economic reasoning(?) respects our right to exist as a nation. Moreover, I know that it doesn't, but you humans seem to want to throw yourselves into greedy denial the minute someone speaks of sharing the common "property" and to keep claiming the common (which DOESN"T belong to you as property) as though it was all yours. The old "might makes right" philosophy has always been wrong. Might might make for power, oppression and murder, but it will NEVER make it right, no matter how many statutes the legal eagles write to make it so. The truth is that right is the true might and everyone should do right. Frankly it almost shocks me that your own implied social contract (natural law) might have to be imposed on humanity before it kills itself. Who could impose it if not you yourselves? Hey...I'm just trying to point out the logical flaws in human reasoning, so don't go sociopolitical on me, just think about what I say. Atlas isn't shrugging; he's laying down on the job and letting the world roll away. Who is gonna put him back to work? Yep,you sure have looked into Objectivism!Every word of your Post proves it! Especially the MIGHT is Right,as if Rand ever approved of Government Coercion! Only Statists do that! If you had read my post perceptively, you'd know that it doesn't matter whether Rand approved or disapproved of government coercion (and of course I'm as sure as you are that she disapproved of it, just as you and I do); the logical consequence of her unstated presumption that capitalism is valid and right, when integrated into the philosophy of her objectivism, allows the (fallacious) "proof" that capitalism is "right" in terms of natural law, which is a conclusion that is provably fallacious in terms of the logical reasoning of natural law. 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. What does that tell you? (Think in terms of her popularity and religious cults.) Or are you and the rest so scared you close your eyes to the obvious! Just in the last year! Benghazigate: sent Americans to a hotbed of terrorists, refused requests for added security, took much of what little security they had away, lets 4 Americans to die and then lied to the American people. IRA Scandal: Knowingly and with intent targeted Conservatives, when outed was forced to apologize. Lying about the Sequester: fireman wouldn't be able to fight fires and all the other lies, when all Sequester is, is a reduction of 2.4% in NEW SPENDING. Food Stamps: Half the country is on them now because of Obama Crony Capitalism for green energy companies: Taking billions of dollars in TAXPAYER money and giving it to companies that pocket the money, promptly declare bankruptcy, keep a portion of the money and funnel much of it back to the Obama machine. GSA extravagant parties during the recession: While millions of people are losing their homes and declaring bankruptcy GSA is spending untold millions of taxpayer money on extravagant parties and recreation and making video's laughing at the stupid American people who pay for it. Then People who do not approve of this Crap or being victimized by it,ought not to just walk away and let things fetch?
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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. What does that tell you? (Think in terms of her popularity and religious cults.) There is no correlation between the popularity of the Bible and the popularity of the novel Atlas Shrugged. |
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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. What does that tell you? (Think in terms of her popularity and religious cults.) There is no correlation between the popularity of the Bible and the popularity of the novel Atlas Shrugged.
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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. What does that tell you? (Think in terms of her popularity and religious cults.) There is no correlation between the popularity of the Bible and the popularity of the novel Atlas Shrugged. There is only a correlation between the very common, uncritical minds, who simply read and believe something because it comes from "the authority of" some book or scripture (belief by a leap of faith). One cannot take seriously, the opinions of uncritical thinkers who only read something and believe it in the absence of proof of its validity. (I think that's why Conrad was laughing) |
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