The preoccupation of the book’s politicians is in controlling social outcomes. Illustrating the view that America’s prosperity came at the expense of Mexico, and only external actions toward Mexico could fix that. Jim Taggart, CEO of the largest railroad company in America, when asked by his hard-nosed sister Dagny, why he built a railroad to poor rural Mexico when they need another to service a booming Colorado, replies along the lines of “America already has so many railroads and we must give the Mexicans a chance”. Businessmen under the sway of this philosophy brag proudly that they have never made a profit. The intellectuals, politicians, and socially conscious business leaders in the story openly talk about doing things for the social good. The ability of the individual to enjoy the fruits of their labors is what made America prosperous in the first place, not some benevolent government that “willed” wealth and prosperity for its people as things that were owed to them. Reading it, I get the impression that Rand, who lived through the Russian October Revolution, is issuing a warning to her American audience to not repeat what happened in her home country under communism. Naturally, the nation’s economy is crumbling, yet the ideologically blinded elites encourage even more regulation as the solution. Government control and regulation are seen by the elites as the solution to all social problems. In it, Rand tells the story of a future American society in which free enterprise is attacked and industrialists are hated and even viewed as society’s greatest problem. Recently I’ve been reading Ayn Rand’s classic novel Atlas Shrugged.
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