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In Atlas Shrugged, she presented a world on the brink of full-on economic collapse as a result of increasing governmental controls and favors, while the politic
by chops 17y ago
In Atlas Shrugged, she presented a world on the brink of full-on economic collapse as a result of increasing governmental controls and favors, while the politicians and the people kept blaming the problem on the supposed "free market" and ultra-rich industrialists.
While there are many people who suggest that the current recession is the result of the free market, Rand's supporters (of which I am), suggest that the recession is the result of governmental controls and intervention in the economy, and that our form of government hasn't gotten even remotely close to Laissez Faire, at least not for over a century.
The short and skinny is that many see the events of Atlas Shrugged playing out in real life.
Of course, no one's really going to read this, since the link is dead.
- roc 17y agoWhich governmental controls encouraged the chain of over-leverage and defrauded investors? Because, from where I'm sitting, I'm not seeing where the government encouraged or rewarded self-destructive behavior.
- jam 17y agohttp://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1880_2010&view=1&expand=&units=p&fy=fy10&chart=F0-total&stack=1&size=m&title=US%20Government%20Spending%20As%20Percent%20Of%20GDP&state=US&col=c http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=18...
- pohl 17y agoRegulation and spending are orthogonal concepts. Your link does nothing to address the question.
- jam 17y agoSpending per GDP is the best actual metric I can come up with for visualizing the "size" or "power" of government in society. There's no 1:1 relationship with regulation, but the two are surely correlated. In Rand's writing, government spending is equally detrimental to society - but you are correct that spending itself was not in question.