Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged

• Collapse of American industrial production

o Society’s pessimistic outlook

o Closing plants and stores

o Rising unemployment

o Lack of consumer goods

• Capitalism

o Believes in industrial production and profit—hard work and earning large amounts of money

o Productive activities would be unrestricted by government bureaucrats and envious competitors

• Socialism

o Sacrificing for the “public good” and in giving chances to the little guy, rather than dealing with those already successful

o Public welfare

o Strong must serve the weak

o As the government acquires power over an economy, the level of corruption necessarily rises

 Rise in corruption occurs because, as the state gains power to dispense economic favors, it attracts power-seekers and enables incompetent businessmen to exist parasitically off of competent men.

 Unprincipled businesspeople curry favor with power-seeking politicians, brokering corrupt deals that allow them to stay in business by means of legislation

 When the government has the power to control and regulate private business, it’s in a position to dispense economic favors

o Always harms the most productive members of society as a means of benefiting the short-term interests of the less productive = steadily declining standard of living

o In a socialist or communist system, the government oppresses the productive

• A mixed economy – capitalistic and socialistic aspects – and the signs towards a social economy

o Private property exists nominally, but the state has steadily increasing control over its use and distribution

• Key Messages

o It’s important to announce the egoistic basis of his work and his life to his family and the world.

o The theory that truth is defined by social opinion

 An idea corresponds to facts

o Money is a tool of exchange, which presupposes productive men and their activities.

 The production of goods and services is what makes man’s life on earth possible.

 If human...