Rand, in "Atlas Shrugged", makes the case that because "the people" (corporate leaders, maybe under employee pressure, AND government) wanted to let lazy and incompetent people get paid BY COMPANIES IN JOBS (kind of like the old USSR, not part of a welfare system), and Also tell the Competent that THEY MUST work harder and longer (AND THEIR PAY be reduced to "help those who can't do, or aren't as good, but have mouths to feed) to make up for the others, that The Entire World should be forced back to the "pre-industrial age" rather than "Steal the Minds of Those That "CAN".
I agree with that basic idea - and unions, welfare, and more, are DOING THAT to some degree. (Note - unions are NEEDED to fight against companies creating near-slave-labor wages, to fight for safety, and more. But they also protect people that Should be fired.)
However, the OTHER MESSAGE in the book was "Those That DO SEE, Should LET IT HAPPEN", from paying bums to STEALING Patents, Bribery, TONS of "ideas" by those 'in charge' that Can Not Work - the rich industrialists in this case, with ALL of the bright ideas - Should LET IT HAPPEN instead of Exposing The Wrongs, getting the corrupt out of office, open Newspapers that print TRUTH, etc.
Ayn Rand makes the case that these highly intelligent people SAW what was happening for about 10 years, and they decided Not Just to LET it happen, but to Help It Happen by saying nothing and going into hiding!
And it is THOSE IDEAS - Being a PART of the lies, bribes, theft, shutting down education - that "the right wing" In OUR WORLD have embraced.
Get Money by ANY means, let the country go down - as long as MY FAMILY has enough to last; which will be forever because they keep taking from "those without a voice" (meaning the non-millionaires) to fatten their own wallets.
And when America fails (and under their control, IT WILL), THEY will have the money to buy the protection they need to keep the rest of us from ripping them apart.
I AM NOT saying we need more welfare; I am saying WE NEED HONEST people in charge with HIGH MORALS (NOT 'christians (or insert religion) in name only', as we mainly have now) to run things. We need Government Spending CUT; War Spending CUT; All WASTE Spending Eliminated; BETTER Education; and on and on.
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