Whilst in New York I went along see Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”.
What a shocker of a movie! What a heavy-handed attempt to ensure that uber wealthy rent-seekers should remain free riders and not have to pay their fair share!
“Who is John Galt?”, indeed!
Ayn Rand’s impact on the Thatcher-Reagan era has been undeniable. Are not the results of Rand’s pernicious influence patently now about us for all to see? Namely: lower real wages since 1972; higher household debt; dangerously narrowing small business margins …. but obscene profits by banks and other rent-seekers.
Yes, and increasing government intervention has necessarily flowed from all these pathologies.
This period has been anything but “free enterprise” in action.
Yet, these people, this 0.01% which has cruelled our pitch and brought about an economic depression, now blames it entirely on government excess and socialism!
Forget their rent-seeking parasitism, and their passing off their responsibilities onto the 99.99%. They themselves are absolutely blameless. “It’s governments wot done it, gov, not us!”
I’ve said it before: their greed knows no bounds.
As if to underline the point, I see a Hungarian-born American billionaire (no, not George Soros), Thomas Peterffy by name, is taking out ads on US TV saying in effect “Leave us alone – or else you’re being socialist!” Maybe Peterffy also helped fund “Atlas Shrugged”?
No, Ayn Rand, Maggie Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Tom Peterffy, et al – you’re wrong. Whilst creeping socialism has been a pain, your actions have proven to be far worse.
Certainly, bloated government has aggravated the situation, but there is, of course, a third alternative which you fail to mention (and has not been tried) that frees up enterprise whilst precluding the rentier class from stealing from the people, in order to make themselves billionaires at society’s expense.
It’s called Georgism.
Socialism failed; monopoly capitalism has failed; maybe it’s beyond time to try free enterprise?
Certainly has a following, although as with all the things, it is not a pervasive one.
But your summation at the end is thought for thought the attitude expressed by libertarians. They use the term crony capitalism rather than monopoly capitalism, but that is a jargon difference, nothing more.
End the Fed – the current rallying cry in the US – is all about ending monopoly abuse. In that case, the monopoly right to issue currency.
Georgism brings a greater focus on the mechanisms of cronyism/monopoly than are commonly perceived; this is its glory. But that position can be arrived at by application of libertarian principles, for those who think it through. The issue for most is that they haven’t thought it through, and Georgism, for better of for worse, is mostly argued for from a socialist perspective, rather than approaching it as a mechanism by which socialism can be restrained. This raises red flags, and logical consideration is shut down.
Libertarianism is captured by George in his concept of wealth. That what you make, with what the earth provides, is yours, and not to be taxed. That is the starting point to forge agreement.
I thought Libertarians would love much of what Ayn Rand wrote. No?
Careful or those nasty Libertarians will start agreeing with you again…