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How Prophetic Was 'Atlas Shrugged'

Posted by Zenphamy 10 years ago to Philosophy
165 comments | Share | Best of... | Flag

I received this e-mail a couple of days ago. How similar does it strike you as the owner's of John Galt's employer, The 20th Century Motor Co. that caused him to shrug, or remind you of James Taggert? Note the use of the words, 'equal and livable wage', and 'Champion of Change'.

"The White House, Washington
Hi,

I'm Randy, the founder of the Red Hen Baking Company in Middlesex, Vermont.

Our 42 employees are the core of everything we do -- the heart of Red Hen. That is why my wife Liza and I insist on providing paid sick days, an equal and livable wage, health coverage, and other benefits that help everyone balance the work they love with the life they lead. Through these workplace policies, we know we're making our employees more secure, our bakery more productive, and our business more profitable.

It's common sense -- plain and simple. That's why I'm so excited and honored to be at the White House today as a "Champion of Change" for working families. I'll be joining President Obama, Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, and other champions of workplace policies to talk about how crucial they are to building a stronger business. This is too important of an issue for anyone to sit on the sidelines. So you should join us, too.

Watch live at the White House today starting at 12:15 p.m. ET to hear what ordinary people are doing to make an extraordinary difference for America's hardworking men and women.

You can join in on the conversation using the hashtag #WorkingFamilyChamps. Whether you're an employer, an employee, a working mom or dad, or brand new to the workforce, your voice can help lift up the challenges millions of working families face and the solutions that will make a difference.

So I'll hope you'll join us live and be a champion for your employees, coworkers, or your community by standing up for common-sense workplace policies.

Because the bottom line is this: Employees that are happy at work perform better. Focusing on policies that make sense for working families has paid dividends for our business. There's no reason more companies across the country can't do the same thing and realize those benefits.

If you have thoughts, I'd love to hear them. I hope you'll join the conversation today.

Thanks,

Randy

Randy George
Middlesex, Vermont"

Can you point to other predictions from AS that are real today?


All Comments


Previous comments...   You are currently on page 4.
  • Posted by 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    How can you say it's not altruistic or that it's not about equal pay for everyone? Randy, the owner says it is. By moving things around, do you mean robbing Peter to pay Paul? What else can you mean? There is simply no way that 42 people plus the owners all contribute equal value in order to make equal pay.
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  • Posted by term2 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Obama wanted to use him to promote one of obsess hidden agendas. With Obama it's all about hidden agendas
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  • Posted by johnpe1 10 years ago
    after I complained about something, I got on the
    White House mailing list, too. . I keep a barf bag
    handy here at the computer. -- j

    p.s. the directive 10-289 stuff is big -- forcing businesses
    to do all sorts of things, from buying a certain sort
    of health insurance for employees to accommodating
    certain customer requests ... -- j

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  • Posted by plusaf 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    And if the word "livable" is used in a sentence without an accompanying definition, I automatically reject the sentence as stupid and manipulating.
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  • Posted by plusaf 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Yep, I lived through that debacle, too, and as soon as it was put in place, I predicted that stress and strain between wages and prices would create a rubber-band snapback that would cancel out any such 'benefits' from the Freeze.

    Of course, I was right... but so many people thought It Was A Good Idea.
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  • Posted by plusaf 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Follow the Money, Follow the Power... Follow the free advertising and press he'll receive.

    A real 'altruist,' eh? LOL.
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  • Posted by conscious1978 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    I watched a documentary on the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami today. There were countless instances where people couldn't grasp the reality of the things happening around them and to them.... It was very sad.

    Those were physical events that you think would be easier to perceive and interpret, but they weren't. So, it's no wonder that the destructive subtleties of statism slip past many today, especially when sugar-coated in an emotional appeal. You can almost predict the talking points coming out of a "Champion of Change" meeting:

    "New guidelines have been proposed by the Administration, requiring business owners to raise wages and benefits for employees, as part of a new White House initiative to help strengthen the private sector with common-sense workplace policies."

    Sound familiar?
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  • Posted by Owlsrayne 10 years ago
    If people such ourselves who are unable to shrug will have to live via an underground economy. I live in rural Az. and haven't been able to get a job in three years. The government delivers empty promises, since we have a Hollowman for president. I'm to the point now that creating primitive craft items to sell on ebay will provide some income.
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  • Posted by Owlsrayne 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    There are individual inventors and engineers who are working on such motors. One in particular on You Tube: LaserHacker. He has become an open source for others in building static motors. From what I can tell he has considerable distain for the good old Govt. Patent Office. That why he shares his experiments online.
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  • Posted by blackswan 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Over 2,000 years ago, man could have had an industrial revolution. It was rejected because they would have to give up slavery. Imagine where we would be if we'd had an industrial revolution then!!! It was only after the renaissance and the enlightenment, when men's ideas were pushed to a new level, that the ideas of "we hold these truths to be self-evident" could be at least experimented upon. Clearly, 2,000 years ago, these truths were NOT self-evident, even experimentally. So, Ayn Rand was right, viz., IDEAS precede reality as we make it. Until a critical mass of humanity accepts the principles that we're discussing, there will be no progress. One danger is that some totalitarian systems are now seemingly successfully challenging the principles of laissez-faire capitalism (China in particular). As along as people blindly accept that a communist, state-run system can successfully compete with a relatively free economic system (because they're not looking closely at the evidence, and because our system is being systematically attacked by leftist vermin), the conversation is likely to go nowhere.
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  • Posted by blackswan 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    The mob is with Obama and company. INDIVIDUALS are against them. So guess who the mob will be coming for?
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  • Posted by blackswan 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    As soon as laws were passed to "protect" various GROUPS, there should have been an outcry; there was only silence as the various group rats were scurrying after the so-called goodies. Once that dam was breached, public spirit died.
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  • Posted by khalling 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    this thread should have been flagged, but I need to be nice, so that I am not infecting members' personal space
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    I missed the word equal too, even though I now see you pointed it out clearly at the very top.

    I don't even understand what the business owner means by this.

    I've seen people do it, but I struggle to keep things working paying people the going rate. I have no idea how someone stays in business with an arbitrary rule on how much to pay for something.
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  • -3
    Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years ago in reply to this comment.
    I agree completely. Wage floors / min wage wouldn't work, even if it were moral to interfere with willing buys and sellers. This article didn't mention min wage, though.
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