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re: John Galt
Alisa — (archived)

I'm not sure how old you are now, but you may want to reread Rand, because it sounds like it has been a while. Your beliefs are your beliefs, and you certainly don't have to change them just because someone (Ayn or me, for instance) says so. That said, let me tell you what I believe. First of all, Ayn Rand's theory is definitely that employees need employers, not vice versa. She was explicit about that, particularly in 'Atlas Shrugged'. After all, it was a documentation of Francisco and Hank and John Galt quitting the world, not a story about John Doe collapsing a company because he refused to work in the railroad cafeteria. Furthermore, you talked about product safety and Enron. A vital part of Rand's philosophy involves honesty and integrity. Shoddy workmanship and corruption don't fit very well into the scheme of things as far as Objectivism is concerned. If people need bread, let's say, going by Rand's philosophy, the breadmaker would want to make bread to the best of their ability, and engage in a fair trade (bread for money). What about this says to you that the people involved are being used or coerced? The breadmaker doesn't have to accept less money for the bread than they feel they deserve, and the consumer doesn't have to buy bread from the breadmaker if they don't want to, whether their reason is price or quality.

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