Atlas Shrugged: from fiction to fact

The sway of government in mixed economies comes and goes. On the one hand, government has a tendency to grow. On the other hand, markets have a tendency-- and market participants have a strong incentive-- to move around government regulations and impediments. On net, the effect is a mixed bag, although sectors of the economy can get worse or better over time.

An interesting example is the Post Office, which retains its govt-established monopoly, but whose monopoly power has been undermined by technological advance and market participants eating away at the monopoly from the side.

In the last decade, the growth of government has been notable-- first,throughout the presidency of Bush and now, in the early days of Obama.

Here's Stephen Moore in the WSJ on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and its increasing applicability...

If..."Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster.

Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that "Atlas Shrugged" parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.

...as recently as 1991, a survey by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club found that readers rated "Atlas" as the second-most influential book in their lives, behind only the Bible.

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism....

Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title.... [The] acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008....

The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you....

Ultimately, "Atlas Shrugged" is a celebration of the entrepreneur, the risk taker and the cultivator of wealth through human intellect. Critics dismissed the novel as simple-minded, and even some of Rand's political admirers complained that she lacked compassion. Yet one pertinent warning resounds throughout the book: When profits and wealth and creativity are denigrated in society, they start to disappear -- leaving everyone the poorer....