‘Atlas Shrugged’: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years – WSJ.com

From the WSJ an opinion piece about how we’ve brought the scenarios of Atlas Shrugged to reality:

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises — that in most cases they themselves created — by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as “the looters and their laws.” Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the “Anti-Greed Act” to redistribute income sounds like Charlie Rangel’s promises soak-the-rich tax bill and the “Equalization of Opportunity Act” to prevent people from starting more than one business to give other people a chance. My personal favorite, the “Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act,” aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn’t Hank Paulson think of that?

Comment

While the opinion peice does have a good point, we are entering territory where everyone is going to want a handout of some kind, straight libertarian ideals are not the answer. I personally like libertarian ideals, but the dirty reality of life requires that we forge a middle ground between no government control and total government control.

A hands off economic policy is politically untenable and ideals will quickly be voted out of office in favor of “reform”, no matter the source. It is imperitive that we follow a path of:

1. Pass short-term stimulous to negate some of the social effects of a contracting economy to avoid social unrest.
2. Improve the regulatory framework of troubled industries to promote competition, improve transperancy, and minimize contagion
3. Be patient to allow the mess we’re in to be cleaned up. Certain things will take time to heal and this recession is no different. We must work through our debt and surpluses before invest and manufacturing can begin again.