atlas shrugged is 55 years old. perhaps it made sense to celebrate the captains of industry back in the 50s, as the country rebuilt after the war. great steel plants, auto manufacturing, railroads.
but, we are not in the 50s anymore. to hear the wealthiest among us tell it, we have moved to a post industrial economy. in the united states, they tell us, our contribution is mainly financial services.
in such an economy, ayn rand's philosophy gets it exactly backwards.
the wealthiest among us, those who would rule, are far closer to the characters james taggart and lillian reardon than to dangy taggart and hank reardon. so many of today's super wealthy did not get that way through industry and hard work. they didn't build that. they inherited it.
like james taggart and lillian reardon, they are sponges, living off the labor of others.
and they intend to keep it that way.
as for john galt....he is us, the middle class that sustains the country. we provide the labor, the ideas and the innovations. we are the motor of the world.
to try to apply the ideas contained in atlas shrugged to 2012, is to get it completely backwards.