Submitted by: Submitted by halo3
Views: 516
Words: 549
Pages: 3
Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 02/16/2009 11:24 PM
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...