Ping! The thread has been posted.
Please, no spoilers, folks!
Earlier threads:
Our First Freeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Theme
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Chain
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Top and the Bottom
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Immovable Movers
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Climax of the d’Anconias
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Non-Commercial
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Exploiters and the Exploited
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The John Galt Line
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Sacred and the Profane
I am interested in joining this reading club. I did not know that you did this. I have heard this Atlas Shrugs book for the last couple months...but never heard of it before. I thought it was a liberal book. Are we reading it to find out what liberals think and disbute it? Regardless this group sounds very interesting and would be proud to be a member if approved.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Bob
Where’s the chapter that has the holy captialist privatizing years and years of gains only to run to the government for hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout money paid for by taxpayers in order socialize their losses and maintain their plutocracy.
Please put me on your FBC ping list.
Hope you’re doing well....
LM
“You don’t think government regulators want us all to be serfs, do you?”
I have two answers to this:
A) I think they do; why else would they keep introducing so much anti-business and anti-growth legislation?
B) No, but they don’t realize that is exactly what they are doing.
In light of recent events, I can’t help thinking the answer is A.
Eugene Lawson allowing the Community National Bank of Madison to fail simply because he was "doing good" for people who needed money. His decision to loan based on that simple criteria, and his statement that he was proud to have never made a profit in his life, not only destroyed everything his grandfather and father worked for, but in the long run helped to destroy his ability to help people who needed it further down the road. It was a short term solution to a long term problem.
Lee Hunsacker too expressed disappointment that after he was given a loan from Eugene Lawson no one would GIVE him a railroad. His indignation at the people who took him in when he had nowhere else to go, yet expected him to earn his keep.
Ivy Starnes who completely blew a fortune by setting up a workers paradise at the Twentieth Century Motor Company by paying everyone the same, then distributing "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs", the meetings to determine how money would be split up, then getting mad at people for quitting. Her statement that the company was ruined by people who didn't understand the concept of "requiring men to be motivated NOT by personal gain, but by love for their brothers."
Finally the passage of laws that made everyone "equal" thereby eliminating competition. Mr. Wyatt, however, has the last laugh as he purposely destroys his oil fields before the "looters" can get their hands on a gold mine and leaving it as he found it.
All these things had me seeing red throughout the chapter. HOWEVER, look at this quote and see if it could have been put into Rand's novel in this chapter:
"The rich and powerful think mainly about preserving and expanding their wealth and power. President Obama must realize that under the emergency powers of his office, he not only has the authority to seize our assets, but also has access to all the assets of America’s richest men for meeting those emergencies that threaten the common good."
The above was taken from a post at DemocraticUnderground TODAY..truly, truly scary..
“Now, let me address my second issue, and that is the manual underwriting process itself. While Countrywide’s own internal evidence supports the notion that manual underwriters are approving a good majority of the loan applications that get referred, the fact of the matter remains that a human is involved in this step of the process thereby creating the possibility that a decision is made based upon the level of the borrower’s FICO score.
Thus, the current protocol intentionally creates an environment where borrowers with lower FICO scores are subject to being disproportionately affected by the manual underwriting process. I say we need to amend these systems to do more than just approve the “cream of the crop,” by creating a system that says “no” only to those deemed unwilling to make their mortgage payments.
We must understand that the credit scoring system we have built is still imperfect, and that if we are to have any chance at closing the homeownership gap, we must make a serious investment in improving its capacity and capabilities. We must do this through improved automated underwriting models that take into account more variables, and measure true indicators of risk and willingness to pay. We need an ongoing educational process, not only at the primary market level, but also in the secondary markets and with mortgage insurers to help lead this effort to recalibrate the scoring system. And finally, it must be recognized that borrowers with credit scores below what is currently defined as “creditworthy” levels can still be acceptable credit risks. Thus, the credit score bar dividing creditworthy from high-risk borrowers, must be substantially lowered by the GSEs, the secondary market in general, and with bank regulators. The GSEs have made good progress over the last few years in expanding their credit criteria, but I encourage them to become much more aggressive in this regard.”
Angelo Mozilo, CEO Countrywide and flaming leftwing idiot, February 4, 2003 speech to shareholders.
This was one of my favorite chapters - if not my favorite - because here’s where the plot gets meatier.
Here’s that story about the real-life company with the same “plan” as the Twentieth Century Motor Company”:
OBAMA’S FAVORITE COLORADO SOLAR PANEL MAKER:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2188466/posts
“Employees, no matter what their job description, have the same pay scale.” “All major decisions made by consensus of all company employees.”
Warning: There might be one post there with a spoiler.
place marker.