I have always thought that the flaw in the Atlas Shrugged theory, was that instead of the economy grinding to a halt as in the book, labor-intensive jobs throughout history have always been shifted to the lowest available wage group capable of doing the job, i.e. customer "support" call centers in India, etc.; slave or near slave-labor wherever it can be found for factory jobs in China, Mexico and elsewhere; sweatshops in many industries all over the world (including in the U.S. when labor costs were less). Back in the day, the existance of government was justified by several tasks which it no longer feels an obligation to provide, such as protection of industries deemed vital to the economy, protection of the weak (ask Terri Schiavo or the aborted unborn about this, or the owners of so-called private property seized under emminant domain). The government (of the United States) also formerly espoused that we were endowed by our CREATOR with certain inalienable RIGHTS, among them being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as opposed to the way it is now, with certain alienable priviledges which are bestowed upon the fortunate by our RULERS, the all-powerful government in the guise of politically-appointed judges, who outrank even the elected representatives and the executive branch (president). The government also no longer supports or defends the right to private property. And there is also a runaway nanny-state which assumes that we are all feeble-minded idiots incapable of making decisions in our own best interest. Face it, we are now ruled not by legislation, but by court rulings by fiat. Now that we have lost control over our "leaders", it will be nearly impossible or at least a matter of many years to get the toothpaste back in the tube, so we must protect ourselves any way we can, and rely only on ourselves.
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Topic: mini shrug (Read 9903 times)