“Experts” still surprised at economy…John Galt was not

Ed F Bias — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:14:12 +0000

Yesterday…Yahoo!: “unexpected jump in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits”

Today…LA Times: The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell…At the same time, however, employers cut 20,000 jobs, more than the 5,000 economists expected…

From 50 years go…Atlas Shrugged [paper back page 1063] as spoken by John Galt.

“Only when men discovered that nature was a firm, predictable absolute were they able to rely on their knowledge, to choose their course, to plan their future and, slowly, to rise from the cave. Now you have placed modern industry, with its immense complexity of scientific precision, back into the power of unknowable demons-the unpredictable power of the arbitrary whims of hidden, ugly little bureaucrats. A farmer will not invest the effort of one summer if he’s unable to calculate his chances of a harvest. But you expect industrial giants-who plan in terms of decades, invest in terms of generations and undertake ninety-nine-year contracts-to continue to function and produce, not knowing what random caprice in the skull of what random official will descend upon them at what moment to demolish the whole of their effort. Drifters and physical laborers live and plan by the range of a day. The better the mind, the longer the range. A man whose vision extends to a shanty, might continue to build on your quicksands, to grab a fast profit and run. A man who envisions skyscrapers, will not. Nor will he give ten years of unswerving devotion to the task of inventing a new product, when he knows the gangs of entrenched mediocrity are juggling the laws against him, to tie him, restrict him and force him to fail, but should he fight them and struggle and succeed, they will seize his rewards and his invention.”

50 years ago Ayn knew it. Today the “experts” can’t seem to figure out such a simple concept. Or is it more likely that they know it and use such stories to keep you confused and in the dark? Are they they experts or are they trying to convince you that they are the experts?

State of our Union from a newsstand owner: Atlas Shrugged

Ed F Bias — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:47:19 +0000

I was listening to Atlas Shrugged (audio book) yesterday when I had an unexpected and profound response. Maybe is was the timing, after a long commute, a long work day and the night of the State of the Union. But an element of the first conversation between Dagney Taggart and the newsstand owner caused me to physically tighten my grip on the wheel. Fortunately for me, I was off of the highway and sitting at a red light.

Elements of this first conversation (cigarettes as a metaphor) have been quoted. But I have not found this part restated.

“I don’t like the thing that’s happening to people…I’ve watched them here for twenty years and I’ve seen the change. They used to rush through here, and it was wonderful to watch, it was the hurry of men who knew where they were going and were eager to get there. Now they’re hurrying because they are afraid. It’s not a purpose that drives them, it’s fear. They’re not going anywhere, they’re escaping. And I don’t think they know what it is that they want to escape. They don’t look at one another… I don’t know what it is that happening to the world.”

Simple truth written over 50 years ago and the State of the Union.

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“Experts” still surprised at economy…John Galt was not

State of our Union from a newsstand owner: Atlas Shrugged