Atlas Shrugged - Socialists Beware
Uploaded by GirlsRule101 on Jun 20, 2005
Take a solid base of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations", stir in a gallon of Orwell's "1984", mix in some of Ambrose's "Nothing Like It In The World", and finally add a pinch of Orczy's "The Scarlett Pimpernel" and what you end up with is the basic recipe for "Atlas Shrugged". An interesting story with solid ideas, sound plot progression, and a whole army of windbags.
If you're into plots then here's the story. While no year is ever mentioned in the book one gets the feel that it's taking place in the 40's or 50's America. The world has fallen into a collective of "People's States" all vying to get the most goods out of the world's last capitalist nation, the USA. However within the US is a growing sentiment towards Socialism and so the beleagured guardians of free trade fight a running battle with their antagonists, the "looters" who wish to place as much bureaucratic restriction and taxation on the money-makers as possible so that "it's fair for everyone". The main protaganists are Dagny Taggart, heiress and prime mover of Taggart Transcontinental Railroad, and Henry Rearden, a from the ground up multimillionaire who has marketed a new miracle metal. As public sentiment begins to turn against big business, leading industrialists and entrepeneurs begin disappearing across the nation one by one, with no clue as to their whereabouts. And as each one vanishes the country sinks deeper into the miasma of "fairness".
Continuing their fight against the "looters", which Dagny and Hank refer to those who wish to get their money, not by earning it but rather by taking it from the rich, the protaganists fight a losing battle against bureaucracy. The theme strikes a harmonic chord within me today when I see politicians on tv demanding heavier taxes on the "wealthiest 1%", and after reading this book I have a much deeper understanding and appreciation for those at the top, many of whom worked their way there after starting with nothing but talent and drive.
The ideal of the book is sound. Place little to no restrictions on those who have that ambition and drive. Let them make the money and as a whole the country will experience an economic boom the likes of which the world has never known. Overburden them, attack them, or otherwise take them down and you end up in an economic, non-productive quagmire....