Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

It seems endlessly popular nowerdays to lean towards the socialist side of the economic debate. I have been, for quite some time. I still do. Not so much now, though, not after this book.

Ayn Rand, a laissez faire capitalism purist, is a damned fine writer. Let's start from there. Her style is refined and intelligent. For me, it strikes the perfect balance between economic and descriptive. You never feel like a word is wasted, but you also feel as if her world is meticulously described and as such becomes almost concrete in its reality. It's the type of writing that demands repect, because frankly it cannot be faked. It's the writing of a supremely intelligent person.

The premise behind Atlas Shrugged is just as well considered and constructed. The book follows a selection of powerful industrial leaders in North America; in particular a woman called Dagny Taggart in charge of the country's biggest railroad, and a man called Hank Rearden, of Rearden Steel and associated companies. It also follows the people who live off the efforts of these leaders - the "looters" as Rand puts it. These are the men from Washington, and the people who try and pull favours to run a business, rather than actually make anything themselves.

This is all a round about way for Rand to make her point that the Government should never get involved in economics, at all. The story is grim, and epic (my copy runs to over 1100 pages of the smallest type I have ever seen). It covers every topic you can think of - art, business, sex, politics, cars, mining, engineering, how to run a good grocery store... it even has a pirate in it, if you can believe it. It's just that big a book. When pressed, though, I'll quote a line from the blurb on the back of the book. "Atlas Shrugged is a book about a man who said he would stop the motor of the world - and did."

The pace is perfect. It rarely gets slow, and often has you on the edge of your seat. Never before has a book made me misty eyed with joy, or outright angry about anything. Only very occasionally does a character go on a long monologue to detail the finer points of Objectivism, Rands personal philosophy.

It's a philosophy that contains a large number of flaws. In a very basic nutshell, she believes in the "virtue of selfishness", believing that if each person focuses entirely on getting what they want, then we will all be better off. There are a few conditions that make it work, though. You have to be a producer. That is to say, you shouldn't steal or loot from others. In this way, money becomes a regulatory system that ensures each mans effort is measured according to what it is really worth. When you earn money and then spend it, you are essentially saying, "I will trade my effort for yours". Nobody should ever have to support someone elses life.

And while that's all very nice, it's not realistic I know. Of all the topics in this book, it doesn't mention what happens to the elderly or disabled, for example. Even so, it's rare that such a pro capitalist view is put forward in such a compelling and thoughtful way. It makes me realise that to only be informed in one side of the argument is not really to be informed at all.

A long review for a long book. I could go on, but I won't. Give it a go, and see what you think. For me, it's in my top three.