[Enemy Of The State]

There have been many times when I sit here reading the news stories about today's corporate scandals that I have looked up at this very book sitting on the shelf next to my computer screen.

 

As I mentioned on a thread last night about 'Big Government', there is another thought from Ayn which I am reminded of cwhen thinking about not only corporate America but also our current government.

 

 

• "Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue.  When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those that deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and pull tan by work, and yoru laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honestly becoming self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."

 

[AzJP]

Bill Gates strong-arm "marketing" would not have attracted Ayn Rand, IMHO.

kj

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

The philosophy of Atlas Shrugged does not explain successful CEOs such as Milton Hershey, who during the Depression provided employees of his chocolate company with free medical care and paid off the mortgages of every church in town, Sonnenfeld says.

Having healthy employees is important and charity is a private matter.

[Dominic Harr]

What amazes me is how the story of Atlas has been turned on it's ear.

John Galt went on strike from a *collectively* run factory.

The head looters were Jim Taggart and that fellow from Amalgamated Steel.

The looters *were* the CEOs and top businessmen.

Ah, no wonder we've gone so far down that road.

[Redcloak]

He says great American industrialists were in fact community-minded... The philosophy of Atlas Shrugged does not explain successful CEOs such as Milton Hershey, who during the Depression provided employees of his chocolate company with free medical care and paid off the mortgages of every church in town, [Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, CEO of the Leadership Institute at Yale University] says.

Sonnenfeld doesn't understand the difference between Hershey's charity and government taxation. Hershey did what he did because he wanted to; not because big government commanded him to do so.