Category Archives: Atlas Shrugged

With adoring fans, fiery critics and very few in between, why does Atlas Shrugged evoke such impassioned responses? Because it grapples with the fundamental problems of human existence and presents radically new answers.

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rands last novel, is a dramatization of her unique vision of existence and of mans highest potential. Twelve years in the writing, it is her masterwork.

Is the pursuit of profit a noble enterprise or the root of all evil? Is sexual passion an exalted spiritual virtue or a dirty, animalistic vice? Is reason an absolute or is faith an alternative source of truth? Is self-esteem possible or are we consigned to a life of self-doubt and guilt? In what kind of society can an individual prosper, and in what kind of society is he doomed to the opposite fate?

Rands worldview emerges in the compelling plot turns of a mystery story, centered on the question Who is John Galt?

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Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest - AynRand.org

Television host Mike Rowe (b. 1962) has accrued millions of fans for his work glorifying dirty jobs. Novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand (19051982) has likewise gained millions of readers by depicting the sorts of hardworking men and women who could fit perfectly into one of Rowes shows. What could explain their popularity? In large part, their fans yearn to see the values of self-reliance and hard work made visible in all their glory.

Rowes rise to fame began with launching the show Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel in 2003. It ran for eight years, and Rowe has since proven that hes no one-hit wonder. Somebodys Gotta Do It aired in 2014 on CNN and ran for four seasons, Returning the Favor ran on Facebook Watch from 2017 to 2020, and his podcast The Way I Heard It has been running weekly since 2016. He founded MikeRoweWORKS and the MikeRoweFoundation in 2008 and published Profoundly Disconnected in 2014 to spark interest in the skilled trades and raise scholarship money for those pursuing a career in these fields.1 As of September 20, 2022, his Facebook page has six million followers, with many fans calling for Rowe to run for U.S. president.2

Rand, who created a system of philosophy called Objectivism, has inspired countless individuals with vivid depictions of uncompromising heroes in her novels Atlas Shrugged (1957), The Fountainhead (1943), Anthem (1938), and We the Living (1936). More than sixty years after their publication, her novels have sold millions of copies and have been translated into dozens of languages, with annual sales exceeding six figures for decades.3 Every year, tens of thousands of high school students enter essay contests in which they read and write about her novels. And organizations devoted to teaching people about Rands ideas are proliferating across the globe.

Rowe and Rand have captured the hearts, minds, and imaginations of their fans for many of the same reasons. Their audiences appreciate the unapologetically heroic exemplars set before them. Some of these heroes maintain bridges and sewer systems, whereas others run railroads and steel mills. But all of them possess ennobling grit, confidence, and determination that inspire admiration and emulation.

Their mediums and manner may differ, but Rowe and Rand have a lot in common. Both understand that each of us must work for a living; they uphold productiveness as a virtue; and they appreciate that there is dignity in any kind of honest work, whether clean (i.e., white collar) or dirty (i.e., blue collar). Rowe has said he doesnt consider himself a real Ayn Randian, but he has read her books and think[s] she was right about more than a few things.4 Examining their common ground can help us better appreciate the values that each offers.

Rowe is more philosophical than the typical TV host, and he grounds his ideas in verifiable facts, not fuzzy abstractions. He began cultivating this reality-first orientation at a young age by recognizing his own limitations, which ultimately led him to discover his talents.

He was inspired by his grandfather, Carl Knobel, whom he regarded as a magician and wanted to emulate: Some days he might reshingle a roof. Or rebuild a motor. . . . He was a plumber, a mechanic, a mason, a carpenter, and a master electrician. He built the church I went to as a kid and the farmhouse my brothers and I grew up in.5

Rowe explains: My career started with a profound desire to build things. Sadly, it was accompanied by an equally profound lack of natural ability. After washing out of every available shop class in high school, I finally took my grandfathers advice, and got myself a different kind of tool box.6 That is, he faced the uncomfortable facts about his career prospects. He enrolled in a local community college and studied theater, music, philosophy, poetry, and creative writing. He proved himself a talented singer and earned a spot in the Baltimore Opera. He also landed a job with the QVC shopping channel by speaking impromptu for eight minutes about the merits of a pencil after the interviewer rolled one across the desk and challenged Rowe to make me want it.7

That toehold in the world of television hosting, along with his tenacity and a subsequent string of other hosting and narration work, positioned him for his big break. It came while paying homage to his grandfather after visiting him one weekend. Rowe explains, I decided on the flight back to San Francisco to do a TV show in his honor. Something simplea short series of specials that portrayed hard work with humor and relevance.8 Originally pitched by Rowe as Somebodys Gotta Do It, the idea was picked up by the Discovery Channel, whose executives changed the name to Dirty Jobs. The show would highlight the unsung heroes who do work that many take for granted. Rowes commitment to following the facts led him, among other things, to his first big break.

Another aspect of Rowes reality orientation comes out in relation to his views about safety on the job. One of his controversial mottoes is Safety third. His considered view is safety always, but he uses safety third to provoke conversation about the dangers of complacency. He and his crew had gotten used to mandatory safety training on the sites of various jobs when he noticed that many crew members started getting injured. After a worker died in a factory where his crew was filming, Rowe reflected on what was occurring. People confused safety with being in compliance. Lured into a false sense of security, they let down their guard and took more chances, creating situations ripe for accidents. Rowe realized that there is a vast difference between safety and compliance. The physical worldnot rules or regulationsdetermines what is safe or not. Mistaking what Rand identified as the man-made (such as safety regulations) for reality (such as the danger of stepping in front of a speeding truck) leads to foolish behavior, dashed hopes, and life-threatening danger. Rowe emphasizes that each person needs to take responsibility for his well-being and attend to his surroundingsregulations or no regulations.9

Rowes follow-the-facts attitude is an example of what Rand referred to as the primacy of existence, a view that entails accepting reality and refusing to engage in evasion or wishful thinking.10 A person is reality oriented to the extent that he focuses on figuring out what is true and choosing to live accordingly. For example, when you figure out which foods nourish you and which are unhealthy, you can make better decisions about what to eat and act on that knowledge. If a diabetic chooses to eat chocolate cake because he wants to indulge his desire for sweets, thenmuch like a person who hopes that a speeding truck he has walked in the path of wont kill himhe is evading reality, and he will pay the consequences. Respecting and understanding reality enable us to work with it to enhance our lives.

A lesson Rowe received early in life from his father is that each person not only needs to work for a living to sustain himself, but also that doing so both requires and builds character. They lived in a house that was heated by wood, and family members had to go outside, cut down trees, and split logs. Rowe reflects:

Chopping wood yields immediate results, and its gratifying to see progress unfold. But up there in the woodpile, the real gratification would be delayed. Because my dad was not just teaching me how to swing an axhe was teaching me that work and play were two sides of the same coin. He was showing me how to enjoy the challenges of doing a hard thing.11

Rowe may not explicitly discuss virtue, which Rand describes as action by which one gains and/or keeps a value, or free will, which Rand describes as the choice to think or not.12 However, he emphasizes that each individual is responsible for the person he becomes. Rowe created a twelve-item S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, the acronym standing for Skill and Work Ethic Arent Taboo. Item #10 of the pledge states: I believe that I am a product of my choicesnot my circumstances. I will never blame anyone for my shortcomings or the challenges I face. And I will never accept the credit for something I didnt do. In item #12, he adds, Some choose to be lazy. Some choose to sleep in. I choose to work my butt off.13 And, elsewhere, he urges a virtuous work ethic: Work for free if you have to. Make yourself indispensable. Be insatiably curious about every aspect of every other position. Work harder than everyone else around you, and smile your face off the whole time.14 This advice is based on his personal experience in the workforce and on his observations of those featured on his shows. He says:

I met hundreds of men and women who proved beyond all doubt that hard work didnt necessarily have to be conditioned on anything other than a personal decision to bust your own ass. By and large, the workers I met on [Dirty Jobs] were happy and successful because they were willing to work harder than everyone else around them. And in doing so, they thrived. . . . In fact, many of the Dirty Jobbers we featured were millionaires.15

Rowes view about the character traits required for a rewarding career are similar to Rands account of productiveness as a virtue, which she defines as the recognition of the fact that productive work is the process by which mans mind sustains his life, the process that sets man free of the necessity to adjust himself to his background, as all animals do, and gives him the power to adjust his background to himself.16 The heroes of Rands Atlas Shrugged take an oath that would fit right into Rowes S.W.E.A.T. Pledge: I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.17 Rand points out that each person must use his mind to figure out what will promote his life, then work to produce the values he needs to survive and thrive. Among other things, he must think carefully about his career, his diet, his relationships, and then work to produce the values that make for a wonderful life.

Like Rowe, Rand held that productiveness involves more than merely getting things done. It both builds and requires characterhelping one to become a clear-thinking, hard-working person who proudly takes responsibility for his own life.18 As Rand wrote:

Just as [man] has to produce the material values he needs to sustain his life, so he has to acquire the values of character that enable him to sustain it and that make his life worth living. He is born without the knowledge of either. He has to discover bothand translate them into realityand survive by shaping the world and himself in the image of his values.19

Like Rowe, Rand didnt denigrate manual laborrather, she often celebrated it. She held that people can be upright and productive in any line of rational endeavor, great or modest, on any level of ability.20 And she demonstrated this in her fiction, portraying morally good people who hold a wide variety of jobs, from cooking fast food to driving a bus to running a transcontinental railroad. Consider how Rand describes an everyday street scene:

Eddie Willers shifted his glance down to the street, to a vegetable pushcart at the stoop of a brownstone house. He saw a pile of bright gold carrots and the fresh green of onions. He saw a clean white curtain blowing at an open window. He saw a bus turning a corner, expertly steered. He wondered why he felt reassured. . . . When he came to Fifth Avenue, he kept his eyes on the windows of the stores he passed. There was nothing he needed or wished to buy; but he liked to see the display of goods, any goods, objects made by men, to be used by men. He enjoyed the sight of a prosperous street.21

Rands novels also reflect the adaptability and resilience of those who recognize and value the breadth and depth of options in the realm of productivity over those who harbor a stubborn insistence on doing only white-collar work. In Atlas Shrugged, for instance, various titans of industry find themselves in altered circumstances and cheerfully work for the time being as lumberjacks, cabbage farmers, fishwives, shoemakers, plumbers, and the like. When Dagny is dismayed that aristocrats were taking the lousiest kind of jobs, a former oil tycoon retorts with words that could have come out of Rowes mouth: Theres no such thing as a lousy jobonly lousy men who dont care to do it.22

Further, Rands good characters admire one another for the competent work they do. When we are introduced to Howard Roark, hero of The Fountainhead, he is friendless and dedicated to studying architecture and working in the building trades. The first real friend he makes is master electrician Mike Donnigan, who worshipped expertness of any kind.23 They meet on the site of a construction job where Donnigan assumes that Roark is yet another one of the impractical college smarties the architectural firm sent down from the office. However, when Roark not only instructs him on how to solve a difficult construction problem, but also wields a blow torch to demonstrate the work, Donnigan gazes reverently at the neat hole cut through the beam and remarks, Do you know how to handle a torch!24 The shared value of pride in a job well done is an important basis for their friendship. If Roark were a real person, he would fit right in on one of Rowes shows. The scene might unfold much like one in The Fountainhead, with Mike Rowe in place of Mike Donnigan: Roark extended his hand and Mikes grimy fingers closed about it ferociously, as if the smudges he left implanted in Roarks skin said everything he wanted to say.25

By showcasing skilled tradesmen and self-starters on Dirty Jobs and Somebodys Gotta Do It, Rowe shows appreciation for the hardheaded, good-natured, clear-thinking individuals who arent afraid to step outside their comfort zones and make good things happen.26 He invites us to think more about what makes a technologically advanced civilization possible, saying, for instance, Every tangible thing our society needs is either pulled from the ground or grown from the ground, and that without such fundamental industries, there would be no jobs of any kind. There would be no economy. Civilization begins . . . when skilled workers transform those raw materials into something useful or edible.27

Rowe does not speak about such jobs merely as manual labor that just anyone can do. He recognizes and spotlights the fact that doing these jobs requires both hard work and significant intelligenceusing ones body and mind to create the values on which life depends. In item #9 of his S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, Rowe highlights the lifelong need to develop ones mind and skills: I believe that my education is . . . absolutely critical to my success. . . . I will never stop learning.28

Rowes view of work aligns with Rands identification that mans mind is the source of wealth. She explains that because mans essential characteristic is his rational faculty, and his mind is his basic means of survival, the action required to sustain his life is primarily intellectual: everything man needs has to be discovered by his mind and produced by his effort. Production is the application of reason to the problem of survival.29 Dagny Taggart, heroine of Atlas Shrugged, reflects on the brilliant thinking involved in solving the problems of transportation while her train plunges through the tunnels of a railroad station: She watched the tunnels as they flowed past: bare walls of concrete, a net of pipes and wires, a web of rails . . . [O]ne could admire naked purpose and the ingenuity that had achieved it.30 Similarly, steel industrialist Hank Rearden looks out from his office over his mills and furnaces and thinks these were an achievement of his mind, which he built from scratch and would be nothing more than a pile of dead scrap without his thought, direction, and judgment.31

Wealth, whether money or manufactured goods, does not lie around already existing in the world for people to stumble across, take, or redistribute. It is created by individuals choosing to use their minds to create values. This theme animates Atlas Shrugged, which illustrates what happens to a civilization when those who think and produce withdraw from the broader society: Bridges collapse, trains halt, food rots, and mass privation and death ensue.

Rowe states that without entrepreneurial risk, no new job would ever get created; and he honors not only those who do the job, but also those who create the job, meaning entrepreneurs and business owners who take the risk and initiative to start companies.32 In an environment often hostile to business, the latter group often doesnt get due credit.

The entrepreneurs who end up succeeding in a market system are those who, in Rowes words, are passionate about their work, even though many dont follow their bliss. More important to them than pursuing any specific vocation is having an entrepreneurial attitude and commitment to an ethic of hard work:

The happiest people Ive met over the last few years have not followed their passion at allthey have, instead, brought it with them. . . . What they did was step back from the crowd and watch carefully to see where everyone else was going. Then, they simply went the other way. They followed the available opportunitiesnot their passionand built a balanced life around the willingness to do a job that nobody else wanted.33

Unlike people who pursue their passion though it cannot pay their billsor who resentfully take a job they deem beneath themthose willing to pivot toward and embrace opportunity tend to be happier and more prosperous. They also tend to produce successful companies, goods and services, and opportunities for others to be productive or more productive.

Rand likewise highlights that we are indebted to entrepreneurs for modern conveniences and our high standards of living. In her novels, especially Atlas Shrugged, she shows how entrepreneurial, self-made businessmen are fundamentally responsible for the goods and services we enjoy. Therein, we see that a modern factory employing thousands of people, for instance, is made possible by the productive genius of the industrialist who built it and the investor who saved the money to risk on the untried and the new.34

Rand defended businessmen and entrepreneurs in her nonfiction, calling them Americas persecuted minority.35 This is because they were unfairly blamed for various problemsfrom recessions to alienation to povertywhen as a class, they have demonstrated the greatest productive genius and the most spectacular achievements ever recorded in the economic history of mankind.36

Rowe observes:

Weve got millions of people looking for work and millions of jobs that nobody wants. College graduates are a trillion dollars in debt and struggling to find employment in their field of study. Meanwhile, 88 percent of all the available jobs dont require a four-year degree. They require specific training. So what do we do? We push a four-year degree like its some sort of a Golden Ticket. We remove vocational education from high schools at the time we need it most. Were lending money we dont have to kids who cant pay it back, educating them for jobs that no longer exist. Im no expert, but Id say thats profoundly disconnected.37

This profoundly disconnected state of affairs has led to a skills gap, a mismatch between the more than three million available jobs in various skilled trades, many with salaries well above the national average, and the millions of unemployed who are not trained to fill those positions.

Underlying this skills gap is what Rowe calls a willingness gap caused by a lack of people who [are] willing to reinvent themselves in order to get a job.38 An underlying problem, says Rowe, is an attitude of expectationalism: Many people have come to expect that they can simply go to college for whatever strikes their fancy and that, upon graduation, theyll be handed a high-paying job they lovenever stopping to consider whether theres any demand for the skills theyre pursuing.39 As a result, a large number of them (and their parents) have accrued crippling debt that they may never be able to pay back, and they find themselves filling out applications at coffee shops and grocery stores. Meanwhile, they are moving back to their parents homes in droves. Their dream has become a nightmare, both for them and for the broader economy.40

America needs to reconsider the definition of a good job, says Rowe. Weve developed some stigmas and stereotypes around certain types of work and certain forms of learning.41 Blue-collar work and physically demanding jobs should not be widely viewed as undesirable, lowly, or undignifiedand the same goes for the prerequisite vocational training for such jobs. Rowe challenges the prevailing narrative that a real education can be acquired only through a four-year college degree. He doesnt reject such degrees, but he thinks that they are not for everyone, especially those who cannot afford them. Associate degrees, vocational training, continuing education programs, and autodidacticism fueled by a local library also are good forms of alternative education. He rejects stereotypes that denigrate skilled trades, as though such jobs are beneath college grads and can be performed only by mindless slobs. (Indeed, many college graduates are beneath those jobs, lacking the necessary knowledge and training to perform them.) Rowe locates one of the main causes of Americas ailing economy and skills gap in this dysfunctional entitlement mentality that looks down on dirty jobs.42

This relates to what Rand calls the primacy of consciousness.43 The primacy of consciousness is the attempt to place ones wishes over the facts of reality. When people ignore relevant information, evade the responsibility of thinking carefully about their alternatives, and maintain, whether explicitly or implicitly, that they are entitled to a reality different from the one in which they exist, they are acting as if consciousness can rewrite reality in accord with their fantasies.44 Like her identification of the primacy of existence discussed above, Rands identification of the primacy of consciousness spotlights the fundamental issue driving what Rowe diagnoses as profound disconnection and the willingness gap.

Whether through unreflective acceptance of cultural norms about good jobs, willful ignorance of the connection between skills development and employment, or resentment of markets, many young people have set themselves up for unemployment, debt, and dissatisfaction. They are like Philip Rearden in Atlas Shrugged, who petulantly demands that his successful brother, Hank, give him a job in his steel mill. Even though Philip has no job-related skills and would be of no use to [Hank] whatsoever, he asserts that Hank should give him a job because he needs one and everybody is entitled to a livelihood.45 Philips primacy-of-consciousness approach toward work contrasts sharply, for instance, with Roarks primacy-of-existence approach in The Fountainhead. Roarkwho passionately wants to be an architectinitially finds himself unable to win commissions and so takes a job in a granite quarry to earn a living. When Donnigan, who reluctantly agrees to recommend Roark for the job, says, Architects dont take workmens jobs, Roark says, Thats all this architect can do, and assures him, You dont have to feel sorry for me. I dont.46

What are the respective roles of governments and markets in relation to job creation, wages, and the skills gap?

Consider Rowes response to those demanding that the government address recessions and rising unemployment by creating shovel-ready jobs: [C]ome ontwelve million people are looking for work and three million jobs cant be filled? . . . Why do we talk only of job creation, when we cant even fill the jobs we have?47 Rowe argues that government intervention is not the answer to unemployment. Instead, the solution is for individuals to take responsibility for their lives, formulate their career expectations in accord with their actual prospects, and retrain for available jobs as necessary.

Asked about the idea of a living wage, Rowe said, Some jobs pay better, some jobs smell better, and some jobs have no business being treated like careers. But work is never the enemy, regardless of the wage. Because somewhere between the job and the paycheck, theres still a thing called opportunity, and thats what people need to pursue.48

When looking at the impact of government-sponsored student loans, Rowe invokes the butterfly effect of unintended consequences:

[W]hen the government suddenly makes hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans readily availableunder the popular (and voter-friendly) theory that everyone should go to collegewe see an unintended consequence. . . . Republicans and Democrats have both allowed a trillion dollars of public money to flow freely between students and colleges with no real accountability for the results.49

The unintended consequence is the aforementioned skills gap.

The solution to Americas economic woes, in Rowes view, is not to be found with politicians from either side of the aisle. He holds that ultimately, the way out of this is not through D.C. The buck no longer stops there. It stops with us. It has to. Thats in part because politicians cannot create jobs. The best they can do is encourage an environment where people who might be willing to assume the risk of hiring other people are more inclined to do so.50 In other words, government needs to get out of the way of businesses and let them do what they do best, namely, produce.

Like Rowe, Rand held that when politicians attempt to regulate business and guarantee well-being, they can only make things worse. In Atlas Shrugged, she illustrates this via the conflict between Dagny Taggart and her brother, James, who opposes free markets and cuts crony deals with politicians. Dagny works hard to keep the family railroad business, Taggart Transcontinental, afloat, mitigating the destructive impacts of her brothers actions and those of other cronies by offering services that customers willingly pay for. James, by contrast, insists that some constructive policy has to be devised, something has to be done . . . by somebody.51 And by somebody, he means government bureaucrats. Despite his wish otherwise, those very policies prove destructive for Taggart Transcontinentaland the country at large. For example, government-mandated wage hikes and partisan subsidies cause skyrocketing prices, as well as supply and labor shortages that cripple Taggart Transcontinental.

Rand argues that capitalismwhich she defines as a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rightsis our best hope for flourishing and securing ourselves against future need.52 Individual rights protect mans freedom to think, act on his judgment, and keep the fruits of his work. In this way, capitalism enables people to create the values on which human life depends. This is why Rand claims that [b]usinessmen are the symbol of a free societythe symbol of America.53 Entrepreneurs and innovators are hampered to the extent that they lack protection for their rights. They thrive in a society that protects those rights, and in which all interactions are voluntary and mutually beneficial.54

***

Rowe highlights mans heroic spirit by spotlighting individuals who choose elbow grease over entitlement. These are folks who agree that Somebodys gotta do it. And that somebody is every individualbecause each and every one of us is responsible for supporting his own life and pursuing his own happiness. Both Rowe and Rand understand the necessityand virtueof personal responsibility. Their work offers powerful guidance for individuals to effect positive change in their own lives and beyond.

If more people were to live by these ideas, they could help replace the downward spiral of rights-violating policies, mounting debt, and recession with a turnaround toward prosperity, creativity, and flourishing.

Dr. Carrie-Ann Biondi holds a B.A. and M.A. in American Studies and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy. She has twenty-five years of experience teaching philosophy at the college level and worked for three years as a high school humanities curriculum developer and Montessori guide for Higher Ground Education. She translates ancient Greek and specializes in Aristotles ethical and political works. Her research interests and publications range from virtue ethics, egoism, and individual rights to Socratic pedagogy and popular culture, and she also serves as book review editor at Reason Papers.

1. About, MikeRoweWORKSFoundation, https://www.mikeroweworks.org/about/; and Mike Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected (MikeRoweWORKSFoundation, 2014). These are private endeavors where he offers a place for employers to post about openings and training programs and provides scholarship opportunities for those who would like to learn a trade.

2. https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe..

3. Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri, eds., A Companion to Ayn Rand (Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2016), 15 n. 1.

4. Mike Rowe, interviewed by host Evan Hafer, Black Rifle Coffee Podcast, ep. 209, May 20, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heCD6ftsYlw. Rowe has also briefly discussed Rands ideas on his podcast The Way I Heard It (see, e.g., Jack Carr Is a Tomahawk Kinda Guy, ep. 261, July 26, 2022, https://audioboom.com/posts/8127355-jack-carr-is-a-tomahawk-kinda-guy; and Lets Get Alex Epstein on Bill Maher, ep. 263, August 9, 2022, https://audioboom.com/posts/8135565-let-s-get-alex-epstein-on-bill-maher).

5. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 117.

6. Mike Rowe, Facebook post, January 25, 2015.

7. Mike Rowes Own Dirty Job: Selling Knick-Knacks Overnight, National Public Radio, All Things Considered, February 16, 2014, https://www.npr.org/2014/02/16/277979918/mike-rowes-own-dirty-job-selling-knick-knacks-overnight.

8. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 118.

9. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 8994.

10. Ayn Rand, The Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made, in Ayn Rand, Philosophy: Who Needs It (New York: New American Library, 1982), 24.

11. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 113.

12. Ayn Rand, The Objectivist Ethics, in Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness (New York: New American Library, 1964), 25.

13. See the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, https://www.mikeroweworks.org/sweat/.

14. Rowe, Facebook post, January 25, 2015.

15. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 147.

16. Rand, Objectivist Ethics, 26.

17. Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (New York: New American Library, 1985 [1957]), 680.

18. Rand, Objectivist Ethics, 1527.

19. Ayn Rand, The Goal of My Writing, in Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto, rev. ed. (New York: New American Library, 1975 [1971]), 169.

20. Rand, Objectivist Ethics, 26.

21. Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 12.

22. Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 670.

23. Rand, The Fountainhead (New York: New American Library, 1971 [1943]), 93.

24. Rand, Fountainhead, 9293.

25. Rand, Fountainhead, 134.

26. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, xi.

27. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 75.

28. See the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge at https://www.mikeroweworks.org/sweat/.

29. Ayn Rand, What Is Capitalism?, in Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (New York: New American Library, 1967), 1617.

30. Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 25.

31. Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 917.

32. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, ix.

33. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 56.

34. Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 988.

35. Ayn Rand, Americas Persecuted Minority: Big Business, in Rand, Capitalism, 44.

36. Rand, Americas Persecuted Minority, 48.

37. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, xxix.

38. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 9.

39. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 122.

40. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 80.

41. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, xl.

42. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 12123, 12830, and 14345. See also item #9 of the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge: I believe that my education is my responsibility, and absolutely critical to my success. I am resolved to learn as much as I can from whatever source is available to me. I will never stop learning and understand that library cards are free.

43. Rand, Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made, 24.

44. Rand, Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made, 2425.

45. Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 861.

46. Rand, Fountainhead, 19899.

47. Rowe, Profoundly Disconnected, 103.

48. Rowe, Facebook post, February 5, 2015.

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Mike Rowe and Ayn Rand on the Virtues of Thinking and Producing - The Objective Standard

We may be learning to live with covid but as the latest inflation report shows, its still a pandemic economy. Two-and-a-half years after the first lockdowns, the economy remains weird: It can take more than a year to a get a dishwasher, many months to get a passport, businesses are short-staffed, stores routinely run out of staples like pain reliever and, of course, there is high inflation. Americans enjoyed years of plenty, where the newest, best thing was always available and many services got cheaper by the day. Now some days it feels like we woke up in the dystopian second half of Atlas Shrugged.

When will things get back to normal? In some ways maybe never. The pandemic accelerated changes to the economy that were already in the works. And it upended many of our assumptions, changing the economic relationships that formed the basis for many forecasts, making everything from inflation to consumer spending harder to predict for years to come. There will always be parts of the economy, like energy prices, that we have less control over, but other aspects can be fixed. One day soon we should again be able to count on fully stocked shelves and more stable prices.

So heres a quick rundown of what should snap back and what we should start getting used to as the Covid economy evolves into the new economy.

What will return to normal: The US labour shortage is a big deal, a major reason why the economy is still weird. Every recession loses workers and some people, especially men, are still not working. Adding to the current shortages is the fact that legal immigration is still effectively on hold, with a backlog of visas that have yet to be processed. The Biden administration should make this a much bigger priority. But relative to other recessions, the labour market has recovered, wages are up and people are returning to the labour force. Fewer people are retiring and even some of the pandemic early retirees are coming back to work.

Supply chains are still messed up. The pre-pandemic world economy was efficient because goods were made with parts from all over the world. But the system was complex and the pandemic showed just how vulnerable it was to disruption. In December last year ports were starting to unclog and the computer chip shortage was easing, but hopes for normalcy in 2022 were squelched by Russias war on Ukraine. China is still having covid-driven shutdowns. And a US freight rail strike appears to have just been narrowly averted. Even so, the Citi index of supply chain pressures shows its better than a year ago. There will be more improvement if energy costs fall and more people go back to work. Longer term, firms may become more resilient to future disruptions and better diversified.

Whatll persist: Inflation uncertainty means more volatility in asset markets. Once supply chains and the labour market heal, inflation will ease and stabilize, and that will help stabilize asset markets. But it will be a very long time before inflation falls back to 2% or lower again. Between demographic changes and weaker trade relationships, inflation may be naturally higher no matter what central banks try to do. We might need to learn to live with 3% or 4% inflation. And that means interest rates (and mortgages) will be higher too.

Offices are still empty. The next few months will reveal what the future of work will look like as some bosses demand all employees return to offices. Some will go back reluctantly and others never will. Business districts already have more life, but they arent bustling five days a week. Offices arent full every day and most public transportation is still down to 60% of its pre-pandemic levels. The pandemic established working from home as a viable option and the office will never be the same.

Trust in institutions also may never recover. During the pandemic everything was politicized from public health to central banking. It was somewhat inevitable as government becomes a bigger part of life in an emergency; its condemned for bad decisions (prolonged school shutdowns was a predictable tragedy) and it doesnt get credit for good policies. Nonetheless, distrust will undermine the economy going forward because strong trust in the government and its services, corporations and cultural institutions is critical to a healthy economy and public safety. Fewer children are in public school, many people no longer trust election results, the justice system or public health authorities.

The pandemic economy will outlast the pandemic. Some of the changes, like how we use technology, may one day turn out to be positive. But more than two years on, bottlenecks of the flow of goods and people means we are still living with shortages, high inflation and a lot of uncertainty about when at least some things might get back to normal.

Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering economics.

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The pandemic economy will outlast the outbreak of covid | Mint - Mint

We may be learning to live with Covid but as the latest inflation report shows, it's still a pandemic economy. Two and a half years after the first lockdowns, the economy remains weird: It can take more than a year to a get a dishwasher, many months to get a passport, businesses are short-staffed, stores routinely run out of basic staples like pain reliever and, of course, there is high inflation. Americans enjoyed years of plenty, where the newest, best thing was always available and many services got cheaper by the day. Now somedays it feels like we woke up in the dystopian second half of "Atlas Shrugged."

When will things finally get back to normal? In some ways maybe never. The pandemic accelerated changes to the economy that were already in the works. And it upended many of our assumptions, changing the economic relationships that formed the basis for many forecasts, making everything from inflation to consumer spending harder to predict for years to come. There will always be parts of the economy, like energy prices, that we have less control over, but other aspects can be fixed. One day soon we should again be able to count on fully stocked shelves and more stable prices.

So here's a quick rundown of what should snap back, and what we should all start getting used to as the Covid economy evolves into the new economy.

Things That Will Go Back to NormalThe labor shortage is a big deal. Its a major reason why the economy is still weird. Every recession loses workers and some people, especially men, are still not working. Adding to the current shortages is the fact that legal immigration is still effectively on hold, with a backlog of visas that have yet to be processed. The Biden administration should make this a much bigger priority.But relative to other recessions the labor market has recovered, wages are up and people are returning to the labor force. Fewer people are retiring and even some of the pandemic early retirees are coming back to work.The supply chain is still messed up. The pre-pandemic world economy was incredibly efficient because goods were made with parts from all over the world. But the system was complex and the pandemic showed just how vulnerable it was to disruption. In December last year ports were starting to unclog and the computer chip shortage was easing, but hopes for normalcy in 2022 were squelched by Russia's war on Ukraine. China is still having Covid-driven shutdowns. And a US freight rail strike appears to have just been narrowly averted.

Even so, the Citi index of supply chain pressures shows it's better than a year ago. There will be more improvement if energy costs fall and more people go back to work. Longer term, companies may become more resilient to future disruptions and better diversified.Slow Improvement | As Covid problems receded, the Ukraine War renewed pressure on the supply chain.

Issues That Arent Going AwayInflation uncertainty means more volatility in asset markets. Once the supply chain and labor market heal, inflation will ease somewhat and stabilize, and that will help stabilize asset markets. But it will be a very long time before inflation falls back to 2% or lower again. Between demographic changes and weaker trade relationships, inflation may be naturally higher no matter what central banks try to do. We might need to learn to live with 3% or 4% inflation. And that means interest rates (and mortgages) will be higher too.Offices are still empty. The next few months will reveal what the future of work will look like as some bosses demand all employees come back to the office. Some will go back reluctantly and others never will. Business districts already have more life, but they arent bustling five days a week. Offices aren't full every day and most public transportation is still down to 60% of its pre-pandemic levels. The pandemic established working from home as a viable option and the office will never be the same.Trust in institutions also may never recover. During the pandemic everything was politicized from public health to central banking. It was somewhat inevitable as government becomes a bigger part of life in an emergency; it's condemned for bad decisions (prolonged school shutdowns was a predictable tragedy) and it doesn't get credit for good policies. Nonetheless, distrust will undermine the economy going forward because strong trust in the government and its services, corporations and cultural institutions is critical to a healthy economy and public safety. Fewer children are in public school, many people no longer trust election results, the justice system or public health authorities.

The pandemic economy will outlast the pandemic. Some of the changes, like how we use technology, may one day turn out to be positive. But more than two years on, bottlenecks of the flow of goods and people means we are still living with shortages, high inflation and a lot of uncertainty about when at least some things might get back to normal.

Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering economics. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, she is author of An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk.

See the original post here:

Much Of The Pandemic Economy Is Here To Stay - Financial Advisor Magazine

There has been a lot of debate over the revamped EV tax credits were going to see as part of the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act. While there were many other things in the bill, including a controversial expansion of the IRS, the cleantech world has been focused on how the bill will affect electric vehicles. Sadly, there are no simple answers on this.

Before we get into the pessimistic takes that I think are wrong, I want to make sure were all on the same page about what the new credits look like.

While the bill itself is an interesting read, its longer than all but a few novels at over 700 pages. Most people just dont have the time to read all of that. Sadly, this includes the representatives who vote for these bills, unless theyve got a knack for speed reading to the point where they can read Atlas Shrugged in a couple of days. But, I did find a decent summary at Consumer Reports that drills it down to just a few bullet points for our busy readers (which Ill rehash below).

Key elements of the tax credit are:

In an excellent article by the head honcho here, Zach Shahan, we learn that one of the biggest problems is the exclusion of cars using battery materials from foreign entities of concern. The key legislative language, from page 390 of the act, says:

EXCLUDED ENTITIES.For purposes of 2 this section, the term new clean vehicle shall not include

(A) any vehicle placed in service after December 31, 2024, with respect to which any of the applicable critical minerals contained in the battery of such vehicle (as described in subsection (e)(1)(A)) were extracted, processed, or recycled by a foreign entity of concern (as defined in section 40207(a)(5) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (42 U.S.C. 18741(a)(5))), or

(B) any vehicle placed in service after December 31, 2023, with respect to which any of the components contained in the battery of such vehicle (as described in subsection (e)(2)(A)) were manufactured or assembled by a foreign entity of concern (as so defined).

This sounds like an easy problem to fix, right? Just buy American! But, the sad truth is that the American market and the market outside of foreign entities of concern isnt up and running much yet. China and Russia (both foreign entities of concern) dominate this market, with most of the dominating happening in China (Russia is important for nickel, but not that important, and not nearly as hard to get around as China). Worse, it takes a number of years to get mining and processing for all of what goes into batteries up and running.

Another article at CleanTechnica goes into some other controversies, including concern that dealers are going to rip people off, direct sales companies (like Tesla) might get left out, and that it could cause a shift to PHEV production to meet the battery restrictions. Heres a Twitter thread by a Tesla superfan friend of mine that stimulated the above article:

The biggest problem is the prohibition on Chinese battery minerals, and theres not enough time to solve that problem before the prohibitions kick in. Ill be totally honest and make it clear that the situation of relying on China for minerals is entirely unacceptable. If you think the Communist Party has anything but its own interests in mind, and that it wont use that against us whenever it suits them, then I have some nice land in Arizona that Id like to sell you. Its prime oceanfront property.

In other words, we cant back out on that requirement or were selling ourselves up the river. We must cultivate other sources for battery minerals if we want the EV transition to be anything but a giant gift to Xi Jinping and his successors (assuming there are any).

But, without giving up on doing whats right for the United States here, we still have a number of options to get through this.

First off, the price limits on the tax credit make this problem smaller. Hideously expensive and inefficient vehicles like the Hummer EV and a number of other upcoming electric trucks are already too expensive to qualify for the tax credits anyway, so they can keep buying Chinese battery materials. This means that the cheaper EVs (which already tend to have smaller batteries) can be the first ones to get battery materials from better sources.

The obvious first step in improving this situation is to focus on efficiency for cheaper EVs that qualify for the tax credit. Being able to use smaller batteries means that more EVs can be built with the limited supply.

The obvious second answer until supplies improve is plugin hybrids, which allow for an even smaller battery. These arent well-liked in the cleantech community, but most of the hate for them gets justified by a flawed study where company cars were sent home and the employer wouldnt reimburse employees for electricity at home, but they would pay for gas. This obviously led to most people not plugging them in. In reality, nobody likes paying more for gas, so anybody who can plug them in will plug them in.

Id rather see PHEVs than have more gas and diesel vehicles churned out of the factories, and anybody who thinks PHEVs are worse than gas cars has some screws loose.

Finally, I think we need to chill out on dealers. Yes, many dealers will rip you off if they can get away with it, but that has always been true. Adding in some tax credits that they can include in their ripoff schemes doesnt mean anything new is happening. The fact is, if we dont offer the ability to transfer credits to dealers, many people wont be able to afford an EV, and they probably wont get much, if any, benefit from the tax credit. So, its essential to the EV transition.

If we really want to keep dealers from stealing the tax credits, we need to educate our friends and families (and anyone else we can) on how they work so they can avoid getting ripped off.

Featured image provided by Aptera.

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Why I Think The EV Tax Credits In The Inflation Reduction Act Will Work Out - CleanTechnica

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Source Weekly, I have decided to take on the incredibly losing proposition of looking at each year the paper has been open and choosing what the best movie of that specific year was. Not my favorite one, mind you, but the one I think is the actual best movie of the year. AND, just to make things really difficult for myself, I'm also going to pick what I think is objectively the worst movie of the year, too. I'm sure that won't make anyone upset with me. If it makes you feel any better, this list was almost impossible to make. There are just too many good movies. Let's do this.

1997 Best movie: "Boogie Nights" Best movie about '70s porn ever.Runner-up: "Lost Highway" David Lynch directs my nightmares.Worst movie: "Batman & Robin" Cheeeel outttt!

1998 Best movie: "The Thin Red Line" The most underrated anti-war movie in history.Runner-up: "The Impostors" The last great screwball comedy ever made.Worst movie: "Blues Brothers 2000" One of the worst sequels I've ever seen. Offensive.

1999 Best movie: "Being John Malkovich" Changed the language of cinema forever.Runner-up: "The Iron Giant" A perfect film from top to bottom.Worst movie: "The Mod Squad" Tried so hard to be cool that it became super dorky.

2000 Best movie: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" This just ages so beautifully.Runner-up: "Bamboozled" A sadly ignored Spike Lee masterpiece.Worst movie: "Battlefield Earth" We can all agree on this, right?

2001 Best movie: "The Fellowship of the Ring" This gave the fantasy genre some overdue respect.Runner-up: "The Royal Tenenbaums" I've had a rough year, Dad."Worst movie: "Pearl Harbor" Just...just such bad everything.

2002 Best movie: "Spirited Away" A work of pure and uncompromising imagination.Runner-up: "Adaptation" Nic Cage as twins is still iconic 20 years later.Worst movie: "Halloween: Resurrection" Ironic title since it almost killed the franchise.

2003 Best movie: "City of God" A Brazilian crime epic you'll never forget.Runner-up: "The Station Agent" Peter Dinklage will steal your heart.Worst movie: "House of the Dead" Watch the preview and be amazed at the incompetence.

2004 Best movie: "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" My favorite movie of all time.Runner-up: "Before Sunset" The middle part of the finest romantic trilogy ever made.Worst movie: "Catwoman" It really is as bad as they say. I tried to watch it.

2005 Best movie: "Good Night, and Good Luck" Black and white has never felt more immediate and timely.Runner-up: "A History of Violence" Cronenberg breaks down the family unit unforgettably.Worst movie: "Alone in the Dark:" From the director of 2003's worst film!

2006 Best movie: 'Children of Men" Truly groundbreaking filmmaking that still stands up.Runner-up: "The Fountain" Visionary and breathtaking. Ages like a visual poem.Worst movie: "BloodRayne" From the director of 2003 and 2005's worst films!

2007 Best movie: "There Will Be Blood" This movie drank my milkshake.Runner-up: "No Country for Old Men" The Coens continue to be geniuses.Worst movie "Epic Movie:" Not a movie.

2008 Best movie "Synecdoche, New York" Charlie Kaufman and Phillip Seymour Hoffman melt your brain.Runner up: "Waltz with Bashir" Animation can change the world.Worst movie: "In the Name of the King" From the director of 2003, 2005 and 2006's worst films!

2009 Best movie: "Inglorious Basterds" Tarantino's best by a wide margin.Runner-up: "A Prophet" A French crime-thriller that owns real estate in my head.Worst movie: "X-Men: Origins-Wolverine" Should have killed everyone's career it's so bad.

2010 Best movie: "Four Lions" The finest laugh-out-loud comedy about fundamental terrorism ever made.Runner-up: "Dogtooth" The best Greek movie you've never seen.Worst movie: "Cop Out" Bruce Willis at his laziest.

2011 Best movie: "Martha Marcy May Marlene" A haunting look at cult programming that introduced the world to Elizabeth Olsen.Runner-up: "Melancholia" The closest anyone has come to capturing the ephemera of depression onscreen.Worst movie: "Atlas Shrugged: Part One" I shrugged and avoided Part Two.

2012 Best movie: "Holy Motors" A French fever dream that explodes all cinematic conventions.Runner-up: "The Cabin in the Woods" A truly groundbreaking horror classic.Worst movie: "The Devil Inside" Actually ends with an ad for the film's website.

2013 Best movie: "The Great Beauty" Sorrentino creates an Italian take on "Wild Strawberries" and makes one of the best movies ever made.Runner-up: "her" That feeling when the one you love evolves past you. But as a movie.Worst movie: "Texas Chainsaw 3D" I don't need severed body parts flying at my face anymore.

2014 Best movie: "Calvary" The best movie on this list that you haven't heard of before.Runner-up: "The Grand Budapest Hotel" You're either on Wes Anderson's wavelength or you're not.Worst movie: "Taken 3" Looks like it's directed by someone who has never seen a movie.

2015 Best movie: "Mad Max-Fury Road" There's really no arguing with this.Runner-up: 'Anomalisa" Such a perfect distillation of heartache and loneliness...but, you know, a cartoon.Worst movie: "The Entourage Movie" I offer no further explanation.

2016 Best movie: "Silence" Scorsese's unsung masterpiece.Runner-up: "Green Room" A exercise in unrelenting tension and fear.Worst movie: "The Disappointments Room" Just try not to laugh inappropriately.

2017 Best movie: "A Ghost Story" The biggest ideas made with the smallest budget.Runner-up: "Raw" A French horror coming-of-cannibal story. It's beautiful.Worst movie: "The Space Between Us" Young Adult space romances need to stop.

2018 Best movie: "First Reformed" Ethan Hawke has never been better.Runner-up: "Thunder Road" Awkwardness as empathy and comedy. Such an undersung gem.Worst movie: "Super Troopers 2" The opposite of laughter.

2019 Best movie: "Under the Silver Lake" Speaks to my very specific sensibility. Most people will hate this.Runner-up: "Monos" Child soldiers watch over a cow and a hostage. Unforgettable.Worst movie: "Beach Bum" I don't ever want to spend another minute with these characters.

2020 Best movie: "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" Breaks your brain and then refuses to help you pick up the pieces.Runner-up: "First Cow" A lovely and peaceful Western about two men and a cow.Worst movie: "Jesus Rolls" The worst sequel to "The Big Lebowski" imaginable.

2021 Best movie: "Pig" Nicolas Cage will blow your mind and remind you why he's so damn good at being great.Runner-up: "Faya Dayi" Just another staggeringly gorgeous Ethiopian drug movie.Worst movie: "Tom & Jerry" Unbearable and impossible to sit through.

2022 Best movie...so far: "Memoria" Tilda Swinton wandering around Colombia is a mood.Runner-up...so far: "Nope" Jordan Peele directs the hell out of this creepy UFO flick.Worst movie: "Jurassic World: Dominion:" Just so inept and free of all entertainment value.

There are so many movies over those years to talk about, but I had to make it difficult for myself. Here's to 25 more years of the Source...that should be enough time for me to really get into them.

Read this article:

25 And Counting - The Source Weekly

Americas third-largest party, the Libertarian Party (LP), will be on the ballot in Alabama in Novembers election. The Libertarian Partys website lists over 60 candidates running for positions across the state.

But what does the word libertarian mean?

Libertarianism is a political philosophy. It is not inherently connected to the Libertarian Party. Some self-professed Libertarians are Republicans. Others do not engage in the political system at all.

Wikipedia defines libertarianism simply as a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value.

According to Libertarianism.org, Libertarians believe that, in politics, liberty is the most important value. Almost everyone wants freedom for themselves, but a libertarian also seeks to protect and expand the freedom of others.

1819 News asked self-professed libertarians in Alabama what they believe a Libertarian is.

I would define a Libertarian as anybody that wants to limit government from what it currently is, and that could mean somebody that wants more states rights or rights at the municipal level or somebody that wants to cut back greatly in what the federal government does, said Joey Clark.

Clark is the host of News and Views on Talk 93.1. He describes himself as a Libertarian.

Then you would get to the more hardcore answer that a Libertarian is somebody who believes that liberty is the most important value in politics, Clark said. Liberty is something we must use as a cornerstone for building whatever we call a free society. That could mean different things to different people, and the cultural divide certainly comes up, but I would put anybody who wants to limit the government and decentralize power in the Libertarian camp.

Jonathan Realz is a Libertarian Party candidate running for Congress in Alabamas Second Congressional District. Realz said that a Libertarian is somebody that believes that the individual owns themselves.

Your rights do not come from a government, Realz said. Sure, a government can help you secure your rights, but at the end of the day, your rights come from humanity, and the government does not have or should not have the power to infringe on your rights.

Gavin Goodman is the chair of the Libertarian Party of Alabama.

Libertarianism is the belief in individual liberty and not forcing ones views on others, Goodman said.

Where does libertarianism come from?

What it means to be human is to be anarchic, Clark said. It doesnt mean everybody has to be an anarchist and railing against authority, the government or the church, but I think everybody has an inherent freedom and if you think back to those early times that probably arent documented, people are fundamentally doing what they think they need to do.

Clark said libertarianism in the West comes out of a fusion of the best of the Greek and the best of the Judeo-Christian tradition that at least recognizes the sovereign individual.

Though libertarianism in the United States is a distinct movement, its roots lie in classical philosophy and Natural Law Theory.

The Ten Commandments, both in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21, say Thou shalt not murder and Thou shalt not steal.

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was one of the first to hold that what is just by nature is not always equivalent to what is just by law.

St. Augustine of Hippo, a late 4th and early 5th-century bishop and theologian, is famous for saying, an unjust law is no law at all.

This laid the groundwork for medieval Catholic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas to formulate a complete theory of Natural Law in the 13th century, which suggested that man is bound to abide by objective moral principles before he is bound to abide by the laws of manmade government.

Though not all Libertarians arrive at libertarianism through Natural Law, and Natural Law can be taken in many different ways, the theory influenced many modern libertarian thinkers such as Rothbard and Judge Andrew Napolitano.

Both Aristotle and Aquinas were also influential to Ayn Rand, who is largely considered an important figure in the modern libertarian movement.

According to The Objective Standard, a website dedicated to Rands philosophy, Rand recommended her followers read only three philosophers, which she called the three As. They were Aristotle, Aquinas and Ayn Rand.

Rand included Aquinas despite her staunch commitment to atheism.

Some say America was founded on Libertarian principles, and the War for Independence was a Libertarian political movement.

In the United States, I think it [libertarianism] really blossomed, Clark said. It was already there. Elements of it were in Greece, elements of it in Rome and there are even elements of it throughout the so-called Dark Ages and medieval Europe and the British experience and the British common law, but I think libertarianism really takes its footing in the world stage in the American Revolution.

... In the Constitution we have, there is throughout, especially in the Bill of Rights, this sense of the sovereign individual who is made in the image and likeness of God."

[The founding fathers] struggled with giving as many Americans as much liberty as possible, Goodman said. And then the balance of what is the role of the government in protecting liberty as well as defending the vital functions of government.

Libertarian principles have kind of always been an underlying basis for the United States, Realz said. Thats what this country was founded on. It was supposed to be a limited government, not a lot of interaction in your personal life. We fought an entire war over way fewer taxes than what we have now, but here we are, for some reason, very very far away from what this country was founded on.

One of the earliest figures in the modern libertarian movement was economist Ludwig von Mises. Mises fled from Nazi-occupied Austria to the United States in 1940 and brought with him an economic tradition known as the Austrian school.

The Austrian school of economics originated in Vienna, Austria, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with Carl Menger and Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk. It relies on a theoretical methodology known as praxiology, which is opposed to mainstream schools of economics that rely on purely empirical methods.

Mises used Austrian economics to argue that government intervention in the economy impedes the accuracy of profit and loss measurements, which entrepreneurs use as signals to direct resources toward their most efficient uses.

Mises believed in classical liberalism, which emphasizes limited government, economic and political freedom and self-determination.

SEE ALSO: Mises Institute welcomes students to Auburn for Mises University, Institute marks 40 years

[Mises] was such a great man, such an important figure, said Lew Rockwell, founder of the Mises Institute in Auburn.

Rockwell was Misess publisher at Arlington Publishing and was significantly influenced by his political and economic theories.

Rand, too, fled an authoritarian government. She left the Soviet Union as a girl after the Bolshevik revolution reduced her family to poverty. She published her first novel, We the Living, in 1936, a novella, Anthem, in 1937 and The Fountainhead in 1942.

In 1957, Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged, an over 500,000-word dystopian novel about wealthy capitalists escaping socialist bureaucrats and academics to form a society of their own.

Rand believed that free-market capitalism was not only the most efficient economic system but the only moral one as opposed to socialism, communism and cronyism. This was one of the core tenets of her philosophy, which she called objectivism.

Rand was a minarchist, meaning she believed in a night-watchman state, a term popularized by another influential Libertarian figure, Robert Nozick. A night-watchmen state is limited to essential functions such as police and courts.

Though Rand espoused similar beliefs and was influential in the movement's growth, she did not consider herself a Libertarian. In 1971, she referred to Libertarians as hippies of the right and, in later years, was highly critical of the Libertarian Party.

The Austrian school is not the only economic tradition to influence the larger Libertarian movement. Nobel Prize-winning Chicago school economist Milton Friedman brought a Libertarian message to the masses through his books Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose.

The Chicago school is a more mainstream classification of economic thought, though it still largely rejects the economics of John Maynard Keynes, who influenced many of the spendthrift welfare programs in the West during and after the Great Depression.

Free to Choose, which Friedman co-wrote with his wife, Rose, was the bestselling nonfiction book of 1980. They produced a 10-part television series of the same name that was broadcasted by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) that year.

Free to Choose emphasized the interdependent relationship between political and economic freedom and argued that the free market serves all people in society for the better.

At the University of Chicago, Friedman was the teacher of other influential Libertarian thinkers, including Thomas Sowell. An economist, political commentator and sociologist, Sowell is the author of over 45 books, including Basic Economics.

Mises, Rand, Friedman and Sowell were all inspirations to conservative-libertarian economist and commentator Walter E. Williams, according to his autobiography.

An acolyte of Mises, Rothbard furthered the development of the Austrian school of economics in the United States.

Rothbard coined the term anarcho-capitalism to describe a political philosophy that seeks to abolish involuntary central governments in favor of stateless societies run by private property rules.

In his popular essay, Anatomy of the State, Rothbard argues that the phrase we are the government is incorrect because majority rule always means the minority is dominated. The minority, then, cant accurately say that they are the government, even in a democracy. He suggests that the State, i.e., any institution which imposes a monopoly on violence over a given territory, is rooted in predation.

Since production must always precede predation, the free market is anterior to the State, Rothbard wrote. The State has never been created by a social contract; it has always been born in conquest and exploitation.

In 1982, Rothbard helped Rockwell start the Mises Institue, which came to Alabama and is now across the street from Auburn University on West Magnolia Avenue.

Rothbard worked with the left-wing anti-war movement in the mid-20th century but became more friendly to the right before his death in 1995.

Rothbard began calling himself a paleolibertarian in 1989 and supported paleoconservative candidate Pat Buchanan for president in 1992. Paleolibertarains are typically culturally conservative libertarians who seek to reduce the power of the State through right-wing populism.

Murray, of course, was extremely important, Rockwell said. ...He was so brilliant, so funny, so charming. What a great man to work with Ill say, I miss him every day As far as I could tell, he knew everything.

Not all of these figures got along, however. Though Rothbard praised Atlas Shrugged after its publication, he conflicted with Rands circle over his defense of libertarian anarchism, among other disagreements. He later satirized Rand in an unpublished play, Mozart Was Red and an essay titled The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult.

[Rand] liked Murray at first, then she felt that he was being a crazy guy and a bad person because his wife was Christian, Rockwell said.

Rothbard and Friedman maintained a friendly relationship until the early 1960s. Friedman recommended Rothbard for a post at the University of Chicago in 1956 but later clashed with Rothbard over his book, Americas Great Depression. Rothbard wrote an essay in 1971 titled Milton Friedman Unraveled, describing Friedman as the Establishments Court Libertarian.

Ron Paul ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988 and as a Republican in 2008 and 2012. Though he failed to receive the Republican nomination twice, Pauls campaign and his participation in the GOP debates sparked a grassroots movement that introduced millennials to libertarianism.

The movement is often referred to as the Ron Paul Revolution.

Chances are, any young libertarian you meet today will tell you that their chief influence in becoming a libertarian was Ron Paul, Dan Sanchez wrote in the Mises Wire in 2012. Ron Paul has swelled the ranks of the liberty movement to a greater extent than perhaps any other individual in history. If that's not success, I don't know what is.

Paul served as a U.S. Representative from Texas from 1976 to 1977, 1979 to 1985 and from 1997 to 2013. He is a self-described constitutionalist and was an outspoken critic throughout his political career of the Federal Reserve, the USA PATRIOT Act, the war on drugs and the war on terror.

Today, Paul lives in Lake Jackson, Texas, where he maintains The Ron Paul Liberty Report podcast with co-host Daniel McAdams. His son, Rand, has been serving as a U.S. Senator from Kentucky since 2011 as a Republican.

[Paul] is so important, Rockwell said. ... He started reading Austrian economics when he was in medical school He ran three times for president, each time bringing a [much] more massive group of people on his side. Hes a great speaker. Hes a very great man.

The LP first convened in August 1971 at the home of David F. Nolan in Westminster, Colorado. It was officially created that December in Colorado Springs. The party founders were inspired by Rothbards writings and formed in part due to concerns about President Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War and the end of the gold standard.

Goodman said the first motto of the LP was There aint no such thing as a free lunch or TANSTAAFL, which comes from Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, a science fiction novel about a libertarian rebellion on the moon.

The LPs first presidential candidate was John Hospers. Hospers was once a friend of Rand, but she broke ties with him after he criticized her epistemological beliefs.

According to Rockwell, Rothbard initially opposed the LP, but eventually joined.

Rothbard was active in the LP in the 70s and 80s but left in 1989 after allying with Rockwell and Paul for Pauls failed 1988 run for president as a Libertarian.

Today, the LP has 320 Libertarians holding elected office nationwide, according to its website. It remains the third largest political party in the United States by voter registration.

In 2020, Justin Amash became the first and only Libertarian candidate in U.S. Congress after he left the Republican Party in the middle of his term. He did not run for reelection in 2021.

To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email will.blakely@1819news.com or find him on Twitter and Facebook.

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What is a Libertarian? Part I: The Libertarian Movement - 1819 News

With four kids, one husband, and multiple pets, including 17 fish all named Dominic (it was 18, but one of the Dominics swam on to fishy heaven), and a full-time job, Heather Nepa is one busy woman.

But this UNLV alumna and first-place recipient of the Presidents Classified Employee of the Year Award for 2022 took time to tell us about her UNLV career, her higher education experience, and her life.

I am an admin III in anthropology. Mostly my job is student-focused, building the schedule, helping the grad coordinator with applications, and handling paperwork. We have faculty retiring and, as a result, doing searches online for new faculty was a big task this year. Facilitating all of that was a lot of work, but it was a great experience.

Ive been at UNLV since 2013. I originally was in the history department. I transferred to anthropology in 2019.

My dad, Jim Ratigan, is a grad of UNLV (78 BS Business Administration). He was heavily involved in the Alumni Association. UNLV just has kind of been in my blood since the beginning. I remember being 8 and my dad taking me to all the home basketball games. That was the year they won the national championship. I will be a diehard Runnin Rebels fan until the end of my days.

When I was graduating from Bonanza High School, my dad told me I had three choices for college UNLV, UNLV, and UNLV.

I graduated from UNLV in 2004 with a BA in history. Now I am using the grant-in-aid benefit to get another degree. Fingers crossed, I will graduate with an Executive MBA in December 2023.

When I was looking to rejoin the workforce, I thought working at UNLV would be perfect. Ive really found that I have a passion for helping other students. I think everybody deserves to have a good college experience.

I am so honored and so shocked. I burst into tears when they said my name. I am so thankful that I got recognized for doing something that I love. I was just doing my job and doing what I think is the right thing. Its mind-blowing. I dont think I really have realized it yet.

The first tip would be: Try to grow your network as big as possible. Meet people. Give them a call. That has been one of the most valuable tools in my toolkit.

These people who work in other departments are so valuable. Those connections are what will help you be successful.

That was working for my Uncle Kenny who had a catering company. He used to take his food truck out to the Speedway. This was before food trucks were a big deal.

I was like 13. People would purposely try to give me big bills, hoping I would make a mistake, but I learned how to count back money. I also learned customer service and how to handle high-pressure situations.

I love to read. I love to spend time with my kids. My husband, Fred, and I have four children: Sienna, 15. Sean, 13, Dominic 6, and Donovan, 4. Theres a lot of baseball in my life. I love animals, all animals. We have two dogs, two tortoises, and a whole tankful of fish. Dominic wanted the fish. He got about 18 fish and he decided he wanted to name them all Dominic, so we have Dominic 1, Dominic 2

At work I come off as very extroverted, but I am a homebody. I love my friends and family, but I very much need my own Heather time to kind of recharge.

I really, really want to make a difference. I would love to be a difference-maker at UNLV I would love to be a voice for undergraduates and graduate students and get things put into place. If not at UNLV, I just would like to be a difference-maker in general. And hopefully be retired.

Dunkin Donuts coffee. I have my Dunkin Donuts coffee every morning. I have narrowed myself down to two cups a day.

Im very into Westworld, but that is not everybodys cup of tea.

Probably one of the most influential books I have ever read is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It completely changed my life and got me to think in different ways.

Because I have food allergies I would go for a thick slice of thick-crust pizza with all the cheese, not the gluten-free ones I have to have now, with a Diet Coke. If its my last meal, I am going to go for it.

I think it was a day spent with (history professor) Dr. (Elizabeth) Nelson. She had set up an old-school baseball game with rules from the 1800s. The rules werent close to the same as they are today. It was awesome to watch her and some of the history grad students play. That was a fun, great day.

Esther Williams, office manager and AA IV, and Daniel Benyshek, professor and chair, anthropology department:

Heather is a proud and engaged UNLV Rebel alumna and employee, whose professionalism, exceptional quality of work, cheerful collegiality, and can-do initiative and helpfulness, have made her a cherished employee to anthropology faculty, staff, and students alike. Heathers commitment to the department its mission and its people is especially evident in her desire to help others, be they faculty, staff, or students.

As several department faculty and staff have dealt with serious medical issues over the last several years, Heather was always the first to volunteer to assist with or complete work tasks, provide transportation, or deliver food to those in need. While not required, she has also volunteered to sit on various department committees as a non-voting member, if only to improve the work flow and efficiency of the committees efforts whether that is by helping shepherd extensive curriculum changes through the college and university approval process, or helping faculty navigate complex classroom technology issues for hybrid department colloquia. Suffice it to say, Heather always goes the extra mile.

Read more here:

Heather Nepa: A Desire to be a Difference-Maker - UNLV NewsCenter

What do billionaires read? As theyre making their plans, building their companies and investing their money, what are the books they carry around, gift to friends, and dip into when they have a moment to spare? Surely these books hold the answers to how we too can become billionaires, or at least successful by our own measure.

The top 10 books billionaires recommend

Richard Reis and Anurag Ramdasan are founders of Most Recommended Books, a simple site that curates the most recommended books of entrepreneurs, athletes, and people of note in a variety of fields. Reis crunched the numbers to work out which books that billionaires most often recommended and discovered the top ten.

Here are the top ten books that billionaires recommend, from data collated by Most Recommended Books.

Coming in top place and recommended by 11 billionaires on Most Recommended Books; Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Daniel Ek, Keith Rabois, Kishore Biyani, Ray Dalio, Reid Hoffman, Richard Branson, Vinod Khosla, Melinda Gates and Changpeng Zhao. From Wikipedia, Harari sees the natural sciences as setting the limits of possibility for human activity and sees the social sciences as shaping what happens within those bounds. Sapiens has sold more than twelve million copies and on Goodreads the book is rated 4.4 out of 5 according to more than 45,000 reviews.

Just behind the top spot and recommended by 10 billionaires, including Drew Houston, Dustin Moskovitz, Howard Marks and Jack Dorsey, Principles has sold nearly one million copies and was named Amazons business book of 2017. Billionaires agree that its good. In the book, hedge fund manager Dalio shares principles he developed while running Bridgewater Associates, sparked by receiving a frank memo from his top lieutenants in 1993 concerning his interpersonal performance as a manager. Dalio originally published a shorter version of Principles online in 2011, where it received over three million downloads.

In third place and recommended by 9 billionaires including Brian Armstrong, Brian Chesky, Larry Ellison and Ron Conway, High Output Management has over 800 reviews on Goodreads and an average rating of 4.3. The book is a crash course for middle managers by the former Intel CEO, with a foreword by Ben Horowitz. The books blurb describes it as a legendary business book and Silicon Valley staple. Marc Andreessen said, "Andy exemplifies the best of Silicon Valley. Andy built the model for what a high-quality Silicon Valley company could be."

Recommended by 8 billionaires, this time including Elon Musk, Ev Williams, Peter Thiel and Mark Cuban, Atlas Shrugged is a 1957 novel depicting a dystopian United States in which private businesses suffer under increasingly burdensome laws and regulations. According to Wikipedia, Rand's stated goal for writing the novel was "to show how desperately the world needs prime movers and how viciously it treats them" and to portray "what happens to the world without them". As of 2019 the novel had sold 9 million copies.

Recommended by 7 billionaires including Keith Rabois, Larry Page, Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg, The Hard Thing About Hard Things deals with the trials and tribulations that Ben Horowitz encountered during his career as founder CEO to VC at Andreessen Horowitz in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Horowitz differentiates between what is right and what is easy and has been described as one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, famously funny and straight-talking. From over 3,000 reviews on Goodreads, including one which says, This is one of the best books youll ever read on entrepreneurship and being a CEO. the books average rating is 4.23.

The top 10 books billionaires recommend

Recommended by Bill Gates, Daniel Ek, Drew Houston, Marc Andreessen, Patrick Collison and, of course, Warren Buffet, Poor Charlies Almanack is a collection of speeches and talks by Charlie Munger, compiled by Peter D. Kaufman and first published in 2005. The book equips investors with the psychological skills required to keep investing simple and easy. Bill Gates says that Charlie Munger is truly the broadest thinker I have ever encountered and Drew Houston of Dropbox said Poor Charlies Almanack was one of the best books he had ever read.

The books subtitle is the lightning-fast path to building massively valuable companies and as Hoffman explains, Blitzscaling is what you do when you need to grow really, really quickly. Its the science and art of rapidly building out a company to serve a large and usually global market, with the goal of becoming the first mover at scale. With a foreword by Bill Gates and over 5,000 reviews on Goodreads, this book is a popular recommendation of billionaires. With a 3.95 score on Goodreads, its not a unanimous favourite, but billionaire fans include Brian Chesky, Eric Schmidt, Vinod Khosla, Changpeng Zhao and Sheryl Sandberg.

How to exploit the crisis points that challenge every company, promises the subtitle of the 8th most recommended-by-billionaires book. Only the Paranoid Survive is recommended by Bill Gates, Charlie Munger, Marc Andreessen, Steve Jobs, Vinod Khosla and Jamie Dimon and follows the story of Intel under Groves leadership as CEO and president. Strategic inflexion points are explored in the book, which Steve Jobs said, you must learn about, because sooner or later you are going to live through one. Over 8,000 Goodreads reviews give the book an average of 3.96 stars. Famous management consultant Peter Drucker said, "This terrific book is dangerousIt will make people think."

Written by a Harvard professor and business professional, this book expands on the concept of disruptive technologies, a term Christensen coined in a 1995 article called Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave. The Innovators Dilemma received the Global Business Book Award as the best business book of the year in 1997, the year it was published. The Economist also named it as one of the six most important books about business ever written. Known billionaire fans are Drew Houston, Ev Williams, Jeff Bezos, Mark Benioff, Mark Cuban and Steve Jobs and the book averages 4.03 stars from over 48,000 ratings on Goodreads.

A science fiction novel published in 1992, Snow Crash is recommended by Ev Williams, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Tobi Ltke, Cameron Winklevoss and Mark Zuckerberg. Publisher Randomhouse describes the book as, a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous youll recognize it immediately. Stephenson originally planned Snow Crash as a computer-generated graphic novel and Goodreads gives it an average of 4.03 stars from over 10,000 reviews (and 258,000 ratings). The book is said to have sold over a million copies in North America alone.

After the top ten come these twelve, in order of popularity: Shoe Dog, Zero to One, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Becoming Steve Jobs, Measure What Matters, Thinking Fast and Slow, Surely Youre Joking, Mr Feynman!, Antifragile, The Fountainhead, The Art of War, 7 Powers, The Lean Startup. Each of these books has been recommended by at least five billionaires.

Become a billionaire by acting like one. Act like one by thinking like one. Think like one by reading the books that they read and recommend.

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The Top 10 Books Billionaires Recommend - Forbes

Sorry for the long spiel and rant, but I am frustrated.

I am trying my best to spread the word, but only a small few have investigated. One person I know has actually read the novel after I mentioned it and only a couple have even watched the three part movie.

Many of the people I encounter in the area I live want liberty and freedom, but don't understand it in an Objectivist, rational, Capitalist sense as presented in the novel.

They seem to want liberty and freedom to do what they want, but only when it suits them. I don't believe they truly want to be fully responsible for their lives, and still want to be looked after by the government at their convenience.

They want change but don't really know what they want and won't put in the effort to become educated so that they know what Capitalism should look like as presented in the novel or movie.

An example of this is that many believe the government should increase taxes on the rich people and large conglomerates, but fail to understand that some of the wealthy people and businesses get that large because of government interference.

They won't even watch the short movie clip "The Trial of Hank Rearden," or listen to the video of the "Twentieth Century Motor Company."

I've had "Who Is John Galt?" stickers on all my vehicles for years and only three people have recognized it and given an appropriate response.

We had a radio talk show in my area that had a strong Randian as the host. She was a voice of reason. A few of her followers were also Randians. She is now trying to get back into politics for our province, but I fear the people are not ready for what she would really like to do and that her efforts will be stifled by the people and the rest of the government.

Here in Canada (under the hand of a minority government), the minority is able to vote away the rights of the rest of the population.

We are rapidly marching into a state of socialism in Canada.

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Telling People About Atlas Shrugged Now? - Galt's Gulch