I was driving through Kansas, as so many of my future stories may begin with, and I was listening to my book on tape, which long story short, I finally obtained after wasting $10 of shipping for a cassette I didn’t want only to buy 10 blank Cd’s to burn from the library! Yuck! This book on tape was Ayn Rands “Atlas Shrugged.” I was pleased with the first book I read by her, “We The Living” and decided delve deeper into her portrayal of what fiscal implications of a communist, socialistic, and liberal ideology have upon a free society.

    I recommend buying the book and if you must the Audio (I usually do not like audio because it is abridged but then Kansas Happened!) for I will not do the book justice if I am to summarize it. Anyways, I will cut to the chase about the piece that caught my attention. In the book I was struck by a comparison of socialization goal; for the halt of change. If this is true then I can correlate the democratic/ socialist party with what the “drive by media” would like to portray the conservative party with; one with unwanted change and unacceptable changes within a society. One now must ask how this is possible for the word conservative itself is one that means to take things slow and use caution and liberal is one of great change and acceptance. I would like to let the reader know that I am one that dislikes words on the basis that for each and every individual it means something different. For example to be Free to a democrat is to have the poor be equal with the rich and to a conservative it means to have the freedom to excel in life with as much effort as one chooses to use. By looking through the words themselves and focusing on the ideas and actions of each party a realization of what socialism actually does to a society can be seen.

    In the book Rand depicts a future that is stricken with a goal of equality and happiness for all. The goal is acknowledged through the bad reputation which money recently obtained. Money in this society is itself a deadly sin! Men and women who work for it or strive for more money and use that as the gauge to their success are shunned for not helping the less deserving others and being greedy. To this world it should be the goal of all men to risk their well being to help the less fortunate and poor. This usually resorts in bankruptcy of the business and individual because in today’s terms it would be seen as economical suicide. Such as in the book a railroad was constructed to lead to no where in Mexico to help the unproductive citizens get around. The railroad was a flop and after the construction Mexico socialized transportation and the railroad was handed over to the State. Cause of concern for any business but to the people this was a great sacrifice for the betterment of society. This business teeters on the brink of bankruptcy throughout the majority of the book but is miraculously saved by Government regulations that hinder competition. Other bankrupt businesses the book depicts has the business owner (charity owner) expecting others to pick them back up with loans/grants of money! This is the Catch-22 of the book; if making money is the greatest evil one who loans money must have earned the money from greed therefore the bankrupt citizen is accepting money from an evil person. Rand’s portrayal here of society is to set up for what the entrepreneurs of this society use to destroy it. She shows that the only way charity works is through capitalists that work for money. If money is not made help can only go so far until the one who did the helping is equal to those being helped. This shows that the Donald Trumps of the world can do more help then the red crosses. Red Cross can not make money so it relies on capitalists to give money to them so they can help. If Trump would give up all his money to the charity now he would have no money left to go on with his company, he would be equal to those who he had just helped, and he would no longer be able to give any more in the future. In fact he would be relying on the same sum of money he had just donated. If Trump were to keep his company and strive for more capital he could give more sums of money in the long run then he is currently worth. In the book, however, the charities bites off the hands that feed them, therefore thrusting the society closer and closer into poverty. With no entrepreneur making money how are non profits charities suppose to continue wasting money (pardon the language but most times money is simply thrown at a problem)?

    This is the way society is heading right now! You can see this in everyday society when people shun the rich for making a profit. Oil companies are a prime example at the present. The media “enlightens” society that oil companies are evil because they provide a product that most citizens need and want, the catch is they are making money off of our needs and wants. How Dare they! Nevertheless what the media does not enlighten us to oil companies are also law abiding following government regulations upon what must be and must not be put in each batch of gasoline to ensure a quality product. Oil Companies also pay huge sums of taxes to the government because society sees that as acceptable since they make so much. In reality society (pardon the language) screws themselves, because the taxes put upon the oil company are just pulling out of the consumers pockets. The oil company now has to take from somewhere to fill back up where the government took, so they must charge more to make a profit and continue on with business as usual; paying salaries, drilling, finding new recourses, transportation, utilities, insurance, maintenance, and growth. If these can not be addressed then the company will falter creating a larger need for government subsidies and inevitably creating an even larger debt that I am sure America dislikes. Yet Americans still see them as greedy and need to be regulated even further. On the other side of the energy spectrum Americans today seem to accept the subsidies given to ethanol because it is viewed as saving the American way. Or is it!? Americans want cheap goods and the American way to achieve that is through competition. No goods are produced when there is no demand. If companies are making money now why is there a need to change how their product is created. Oil is the same way as long as the price is low people do not see a need for change and if the liberal government were concerned about the American people they would not create a cheaper gas but let it get expensive and let Ethanol on its own time become cheaper then gas with no government subsidies! Liberals do not want change they want complacency! Their catch-22 is they want Ethanol to be competitive with oil so they give out subsidies but they want gas to be as cheap as possible so their theory is tax it? If they were serious they would make Oil expensive and let it rise above ethanol then a dramatic change in production would occur through capitalisms supply and demand curve that has yet to fail rather then socialism. This is what the conservative idea wants, change. Republicans want the market to change to ethanol so the economy can grow but the only cost effective and market fail safe way is for consumers to demand it not for government to demand it.

    To change growth must occur and competition must happen! In the book the socialist thinkers create a law banning competition as well as banning any new products or any more products to be created after the enactment of the law! The theory is that if no one creates anything and no competition is had then society can be equals! Also all the works of art, books, and business ideas that no one paid attention to in the past will now get their “fair” chance to succeed now with no competition. No man would have envy over another man and everyone would be complacent to stay where they are. This is Utopia but as any scientifically or religious man and women know it can not be achieved with the biology given to man and religious temptations man is born with. Man will always demand more and man will never work for nothing. Research has shown that if a person works for nothing meaning nothing is achieved through their blood and toil they will first give it up and look for meaningful work but if this state continues madness ensues. Who created the experiment and why? The Nazis discovered this when they asked Jews to dig hole and fill them in every day just to start over the next day! Work was done but the person new it contributed to nothing. Normally the men and women would stop when they figured this out but since the Nazis made them go on the subjects went mad. This state is what Rands book shows. Workers now could not get ahead but they could also not get behind. If no work was done and they earned just as much as if they were working…. Why work? In the book men and women who use to enjoy the challenge their job created and enjoy trying to reach for the next level of achievement simply walked out of the job when their mind caught up with them. They saw nothing could be achieved so the individuals walked off never to be seen again. A communist would say this is how to better the collective of society but how does the individual feel when they accomplish a task for another person that does nothing. Why would a Plumber fix a sink when the person they are working for will never do anything to better the plumber's life and a fellow plumber gets paid just as much for sitting at home? For would I write this if I knew no one would read it and no one could be inspired by it? Inevitably this democrat idea policy ensues with nothing. Nothing is what happens, no new discoveries, no new art, and no further production. Life then halts and complacency must arrive if not the individual becomes depressed and insane.

    Society today is following this theory through welfare and feeling sorry for individuals who can’t find work. Which, is a funny concept considering liberals say there are huge unemployment rates during the statistical full employment of five percent in the economy. Welfare was created by FDR to help America out of the depression. This was not the welfare system we know and acknowledge today, this welfare system was based off of work done for the nation. If you were out of a job you could work on improving the nation for instance constructing the Hoover Damn or many others created in the Tennessee region, work improving national forests, work improving cities, and work improving other aspects of society. The pay checks offered to the people were far less then what they would earn in any other job. This policy initially put Americans to work improving this great nation in exchange for money to help improve the economy which would then create jobs the government workers would go to for better pay, in the end eliminating a government program! (Which should be the goal of all government organization but alas we have a bureaucracy!) Today we simply hand over a check that is comparable to many jobs, if not more; in exchange for ones word they will find work. This pay check is needed by some of the proud citizens who want a good paying job that they will be productive in but for many this is either a second source of income or their means of income living happily on the lifestyle tax payers pay for. This is now the democrat idea policy of complacency and equality once again. A true conservative ideology would be if welfare must exist then it would be to use FDR’s (considered a democrat but again words have many meaning) policy of working for a pay check to help in the transition to a better private employer job. A welfare check that would decrease as time went on slowly forcing the individual to find a job and be productive. One can say a capitalist society in the real world is the best way to peruse a communist goal of equality. If everyone were to work to the standard of the most productive all could be equal and all who see themselves as too good to work would be the outcasts. Instead of dummying all down to the worthless who do not work.

    Praising individuals who do not accept responsibility is another fault Rands depicts as a growing concern in society. Throughout the book the common saying is “it’s not my fault it went wrong,” and “Who is John Gauld.” The question of John Gauld is a saying that is not known where it came from and because no one knows who John Gauld is, it is used to show why ask who’s at fault, or why something went wrong. When a society does this no one will take chances and because no one is accountable for mistakes consumers are less willing to buy products offered by businesses. The producers then are in charge of the market. If they can not produce a service it is not their fault so they then wonder why no one will buy from them! When that happens the companies create laws through lobbying congress that forbid competition which allows the business to produce what ever product they want in whatever condition they so choose and the consumer has no other choice but to buy it.

    Again society is following in the footsteps of this book. Democrats want a Socialized Health care system to “ensure” all citizens have access to health care. The problem is when the government creates this there is no other choice for the citizens but the government health care. So whatever the doctor sees fit for the citizens there is no longer any second opinions. The doctors must follow all government restrictions and be subject to government pay. Believe it or not government pay is not the greatest! Doctors would now be equal to pay with teachers so why go through medical school pursuing one of the hardest and most grueling fields that is ever changing when they can become a teacher with the same pay, less work, and mush less risk. Doctors will be in greater demand so the qualifications to become one will be less and soon any one with a GED will be able to become one. Remember the kid in class who got an F in Biology in High school but liked to tear animals apart, can you say “Hello Doctor Clark!”

    Ayn Rand’s future takes place in America during the Industrial Revolution and during the peak of the Unionization of companies. She depicts the socialization/ communization in a very rapid time period but one can see the laws in the book as slowly making their way into our society. Currently Individuals who call themselves democrats hate greed and believe it is the root of all evil, they hate companies that make profit, and they hate competition. The focus of most hate is directed upon Wall-Mart which like them or not they run much more smoothly and far more efficient then government. Remember how I said I am one of ideas not words! You can say there are republicans out there that want the same thing Ayn Rand depicts as wrong in a society; then they are not republicans. To be a fiscal republican one must allow competition, allow innovation, allow productivity, and allow incentives; anything else is not a republican view. Politicians who hide under the republican banner but say and do the opposite are imposters.

    Parties are the problem with America and if we are to rise above words and represent ideas this system must be abolished! All other theories of how to fix the electoral system are simply band aids to a growing disease of party politics. No one can argue for the continuance of the party system even Washington said party politics will tear the nation apart! Look at today we are a split nation and vote for candidates solely based on party rather then qualifications. Democrats do not want change because they lose their socialization of Americans and Republicans do not want change because they lose their large conservative base. But behind everyone lies an Idea that words cannot and never will convey! I have the idea for a market where individuals compete based on productivity and the want for self improvement! I believe in the idea for a nation that rewards hard work. I believe in an idea for a nation that stands up for human rights granted to us by God! And I believe in an Idea for a nation that stands for Morals! Any other words that try to encompass these ideas are non existent and if they do exist the word only represent this to a few! I stand for no party of change I stand for an Idea!