Living in "Atlas Shrugged"

One day we can all tell our grandchildren that we remember a time when Atlas Shrugged was fiction.

On Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama gave a weekly radio address that could have been given by any one of Ayn Rand's villainous bureaucrats:

"Innovation has been essential to our prosperity in the past, and it will be essential to our prosperity in the future. But it is only by building a new foundation that we will once again harness that incredible generative capacity of the American people. All it takes are the policies to tap that potential – to ignite that spark of creativity and ingenuity – which has always been at the heart of who we are and how we succeed. At a time when folks are experiencing real hardship, after years in which we have seen so many fail to take responsibility for our collective future, it’s important to keep our eyes fixed on that horizon."

Let's look closely at this.

"Innovation has been essential to our prosperity in the past, and it will be essential to our prosperity in the future." President Obama acknowledges that America has been prosperous in the past. He does not acknowledge the conditions that made innovation and prosperity possible.

"But it is only by building a new foundation that we will once again harness that incredible generative capacity of the American people." The president is saying that whatever worked in the past can't work in the future. "Only" by doing something completely different, "building a new foundation," can the creative work of the American people be harnessed. Memo to the president: horses work in harness; people work in freedom.

"All it takes are the policies to tap that potential – to ignite that spark of creativity and ingenuity – which has always been at the heart of who we are and how we succeed." By this the president apparently means "policies" that reward some kinds of enterprise and punish others. Solar panels get a subsidy. Oil refineries pay a carbon fee. A thousand new tax rules will penalize certain kinds of conduct, or people, and reward others. Don't forget to tip your congressman.

"At a time when folks are experiencing real hardship, after years in which we have seen so many fail to take responsibility for our collective future, it’s important to keep our eyes fixed on that horizon." The president would like you to believe that everything bad in the economy is the fault of selfish, evil, private businesses that were motivated by profit, while everything good is the result of government spending. He knows you're angry. He'd like to direct your anger away from Pennsylvania Avenue.

It's sad and almost comic. The campaign that sold hope has delivered stale, foolish, warmed-over socialism. "All it takes are the policies" is another way of saying government should influence all economic decisions to make sure "our collective future" turns out right. But government doesn't make smart economic decisions, it makes politically-influenced decisions. It makes decisions by looking at electoral maps and opinion polls, by reviewing and soliciting campaign contributions, and by relying on ideological convictions that may or may not line up with the facts.

Evidence that government is not competent to make complex economic decisions can be found in the burlesque failures of the program to help homeowners facing foreclosure and the ludicrous cash-for-clunkers program, but even if you believe the government can miraculously become capable, there is a larger question.

What happens to your freedom when the government micromanages the economy?

Should you have to wake up every day wondering if your industry or business has been targeted for destruction in the name of "our collective future?"

What happens to the economy, and the country, when every business decision has to please the government?

It's all in Atlas Shrugged, if you care to read it.

Or you could just watch it live. Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters "The glory days are coming to an end for the health insurance industry in our country," and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank threatened banks with punitive legislation unless he sees a "significant increase" in mortgage modifications.

It's not going to take long, at this rate. Watching it live might be faster than reading the book.


Copyright 2009

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