Just like economics, various theories and formulas are complex and self-contained, but in fact their premise and assumptions do not exist and are impossible in reality, so "economics has no theorems".
Likewise, the perfect national hero in Atlas Shrugged, sturdy, light and cheap metal, timeless engines, ridiculous 10-289, utopian elite paradise, these are all in reality. Impossible to exist. The perfect cycle of steel-railway-coal mine accumulates wealth internally, and only accelerates the consumption of resources externally. Therefore, the model of the elites saving the earth is naive, and it is also a packaged halo. These can only exist in the author's exaggerated ingenious imagination, which is a kind of emotional catharsis for her to escape the shadow of the Soviet era.
In reality, the greed for profit is by no means progress, but the stifling of innovation by monopoly. If Watt monopolized steam engines like Reardon, would there still be an industrial revolution? It's precisely because Dagny has monopolized the railways across the country that it collapses as soon as she leaves, and it's because Wyatt has a monopoly on the oil fields that a fire will bring disaster to the world, and there was no fire when he first came, so he had to. To use the ruins after deliberate destruction to set off the importance of some people is a shameful show in itself. It is not that there are no talented people in the world, but that a few elites have destroyed their stage for their own greatness.
In addition, the combination of money and power will create powerful families and groups. In reality, these family groups also affect the US Senate. Even a gun control bill cannot be passed. Will there be something as funny as 10-289? Therefore, it is very absurd to portray these family groups as heroes against the tyranny of the government. They are the ones who may actually introduce the 10-289 bill that violates the interests of labor, and they are the ones who are most in line with the relationship between slavery.
Novels and movies are only for fun. Returning to the present, the world economic system built by Wall Street elites is not perfect. The ever-increasing bubbles endanger the sustainable development of the earth. Under the growth rate, there is a lot of inefficiency and waste. Influenza is even more harmful to people's lives. The problem now may not be communism and capital, planning and market, and getting rich first and later, but how to redesign a reasonable economic operation system, otherwise human beings will not be far from going downhill.
View more about Atlas Shrugged: Part I reviews
