Scandals lead execs to 'Atlas Shrugged'

USA Today ^ | 9/23/02 | Del Jones

[TomServo]

In these post-Enron days of corporate scandal, some of the millions of copies of Atlas Shrugged that have been sold over 45 years are being dusted off by executives under siege by prosecutors, regulators, Congress, employees, investors, a Republican president, even terrorists.

[raybbr]

I don't begrudge wealth either. If you listen to the likes of Rush Limbaugh (of whom I am a faithful listener) he says we can all be millionaires if we just try hard enough! How is that possible? Are there so many resources in this country that we could all be rich? Clearly not. So, then is it okay to ignore all the people that are working hard trying to raise families and pay for homes just because you made it?

I am not arguing with you, just expanding the point you made.

[RJCogburn]

Do you mean competition or the driving need to soak every penny of profit out of company so the board members get theirs first?

Competition.

[jjm2111]

"Our government is leaping forward trying to legislate morality, which is a joke," says Patterson, who last year sent e-mail to Cerner managers warning them that their cars were too seldom in the company parking lot before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m.

Where do these people learn how to write?

BTW, I really hate owners who exhort their managers/employees to put in all sorts of unpaid overtime.

[Misterioso]

Did you see "The Perfect Storm?" I thought Clooney was great as the no BS skipper of the Andrea Gail. I thought of him as either Rearden or Galt in Atlas Shrugged, if it is ever produced. I've been going through these casting exercises since 1964, when the first rumor of a movie started. Maybe the time is ripe, now that Rand's scenario is beginning to come true. I would be remiss if I didn't list the link to the Ayn Rand Institute, since I do volunteer work there.

http://www.aynrand.org

[Kevin Curry]

Others see it as pie in the sky. "Ayn Rand creates a perfect capitalism, which in my mind relies too heavily on individual integrity to work," says Nicolas Boillot, president of ad agency Hart-Boillot. "There are those who are looking for a quick buck and willing to compromise their integrity for a price. Perfect capitalism is as attractive and impossible as perfect communism. The greedy and lazy will ruin either system for the rest."

A nugget of wisdom the Randian zealots will stumble past and never see in the blind rush to an unworkable utopia.

I don't fear ideas, even fanciful ideas of utopia. I do fear true believers in fanciful ideas of utopia. From the left to the right, they are dangerous people.

[jjm2111]

I read it and it was an excellent book. I don't agree with Rand's godlessness, but I do love capitalism and have first hand experience in how the government taxes and regulates small owners to death.

[raybbr]

Good point about the mall construction. In my case I was referring to an existing mall here in CT. Should have made that clear. It only has a few stores left. They plan to expand it and the mayor of New Haven was talking about how great this was for the area.

And, you're right about the steel production process. I worked in a steel mill back in the late '70s. My father is still involved with them. He tells me all the new innovations and I am amazed that they can produce steel 20 times more efficiently then before.

I just wish these corporations would see the positive impact creating industrial jobs has over service jobs. Besides, you still can't get good service in our service oriented society today!

[raybbr]

How can we tell the difference?

[galt-jw]

we need a modern day Ragnar Danneskjold.

[section9]

Part of the problem, Ray, is the fact that labor costs have a built in structure of benefits, such as health and 401K wound into them.

Your average Chinese Field Marshal who owns a stake in State Steel Mill Number 26 does not have to worry about this. He simply skims the profit off the sweat of the dollar a day labor that works for him and his Party cronies. That's part of our problem. I'm not trying to be pollyanish about all this; but to counter low Asian labor costs we simply must learn to make our industries hyperefficient and hyperproductive. It's like warfare: you have to think at a different level and outside the box.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[galt-jw]

mel gibson as galt.

[Lurking Libertarian]

it wouldn't take much for people like Gates to pick up shop and move to more friendly locale.

Not if they want to sell goods in the US market-- that would subject them to US regulation no matter where they are located.

[Misterioso]

mel gibson as galt.

Big, big money.

[Centurion2000]

bump

[BubbaJunebug]

The book sells extremely well in pockets such as the Atlanta suburb of Acworth, Ga., according to Amazon.com.

ACWORTH!!!...they must mean the neighborhood with 20 new homes....the rest of Acworth can't read.

[Grit]

An unbilled Mel Gibson, unseen for 90% of the movie. Perhaps he would do it for scale. :)

[Cable225]

I don't begrudge wealth either. ------- Hmmmm, sure does sound like it.

If you listen to the likes of Rush Limbaugh (of whom I am a faithful listener) he says we can all be millionaires if we just try hard enough! How is that possible? ----- Easy. Wealth or the creation of wealth is not a zero-sum game. My making 100K/yr does not exclude you from making it. Also, I don't think Rush ever said we can all be millionaires. I have heard him use the zero-sum equation on decent salaries in the 60-100K range.

Are there so many resources in this country that we could all be rich? Clearly not. ------ Rich, no. Decent salaries, certainly. And no matter what, you are always going to have a percentage of the population that lacks the drive, ambition, or intelligence to perform anything other than low-level service industry work anyway.

So, then is it okay to ignore all the people that are working hard trying to raise families and pay for homes just because you made it? ------ You are teetering on the edge of class envy here. People are offered works at terms defined by the employer. The employer ideally defines those terms as a balance between his profitability and his ability to retain quality people. If during the course of the relationship, one party or the other becomes dis-satisfied, either party has the option to end it. As an employee, to rail or be envious of the money the guys at the top are pulling down is just silly. The employer has no oligation to make you rich.

[scoopscandal]

Yikes, I saw the movie and I didn't care for it. Clooney is easy enough on the eyes however, I always found him to be annoying...he has an aura of no substance about him.

I better get into my asbestos suit quick...ugh.

Regards,

[babyface00]

"Are there so many resources in this country that we could all be rich? Clearly not."

You're falling into the Liberal's trap here. Certainly there are enough resources that we could all be rich. By the measure of a couple of decades ago, most of our poor are rich (they have cars, TVs, VCRs, ample food).

Wealth isn't some fixed pie that we have to cut up so that whenever one person gets "more" someone else gets "less". That's the rationale that Democrats use further their socialist goals.

When we speak of successful individuals "creating wealth", that's exactly what they're doing. They're making wealth that didn't exist before. Sure, the ones who do all the work and investment keep most of it for themselves (as they should), but plenty is left over and trickles down through their employees, their suppliers, and their customers. All of us benefit when wealth is created - no one's getting shafted when someone is successful.

That said, the peopl at Enron, Global Crossing, et. al were not creating wealth, but guilty of fraud as well as other criminal acts. Comparing those guys to the real wealth builders isn't fair, nor accurate.

[j_tull]

Perfect capitalism is as attractive and impossible as perfect communism

While the attractiveness of communism eludes me, I have to agree that there isn't nearly enough integrity to achieve "perfect capitalism."