RRD:Today I will begin a series of pieces,in which I will be publishing excerpts from Atlas Shrugged(within the guidelines of fair use) that I regard as particularly relevant to our time.
All the page number's are from the current paperback version. This one is on the Government's habit of crippling a industry,& then condemning it for it's failure to produce. A conversation between Ken Danagger,a coal magnate,& Hank Rearden a steel industrialist,and the inventor of a revolutionary new metal called Rearden Metal.The scene takes place after the country has moved to coal once the Government essentially destroyed the oil industry.It is also a crime to prefer one client over another for a good or service.Hence customers who were farsighted enough to order Rearden Metal are made to wait,while mediocrities who scorned it get "their fair share",as determined by the state.The penalty for violating this law is ten years in jail,unless "permission" is sought from the bureaucrats.
"Danagger had explained that half of his original order would be sufficient to brace such tunnels as would cave in,if he delayed the bracing much longer,and to recondition the mines of the Confederated Coal Company,gone bankrupt,which he had purchased three weeks ago."....
..."The newspapers are yelling that coal is now the most crucial commodity in the country.They are also yelling that the coal operators are profiteering in the oil shortage.One gang in Washington is yelling that I am expanding too much and something should be done to stop me,because I am becoming a monopoly.Another gang in Washington is yelling that I am not expanding enough and something should be done to let the government seize my mines,because I am greedy for profits and unwilling to satisfy the public's need of fuel.At my present rate of profit,this Confederated Coal property will bring back the money I spent on it--in forty-seven years.I have no children.I bought it,because there's one customer I don't dare leave without coal--and that's Taggart Transcontinental.I keep thinking of what would happen if the railroads collapsed."
He had stopped,then added,"I don't know why I still care about that,but I do.Those people in Washington don't seem to have a clear picture of what that would be like.I have."....
All the page number's are from the current paperback version. This one is on the Government's habit of crippling a industry,& then condemning it for it's failure to produce. A conversation between Ken Danagger,a coal magnate,& Hank Rearden a steel industrialist,and the inventor of a revolutionary new metal called Rearden Metal.The scene takes place after the country has moved to coal once the Government essentially destroyed the oil industry.It is also a crime to prefer one client over another for a good or service.Hence customers who were farsighted enough to order Rearden Metal are made to wait,while mediocrities who scorned it get "their fair share",as determined by the state.The penalty for violating this law is ten years in jail,unless "permission" is sought from the bureaucrats.
"Danagger had explained that half of his original order would be sufficient to brace such tunnels as would cave in,if he delayed the bracing much longer,and to recondition the mines of the Confederated Coal Company,gone bankrupt,which he had purchased three weeks ago."....
..."The newspapers are yelling that coal is now the most crucial commodity in the country.They are also yelling that the coal operators are profiteering in the oil shortage.One gang in Washington is yelling that I am expanding too much and something should be done to stop me,because I am becoming a monopoly.Another gang in Washington is yelling that I am not expanding enough and something should be done to let the government seize my mines,because I am greedy for profits and unwilling to satisfy the public's need of fuel.At my present rate of profit,this Confederated Coal property will bring back the money I spent on it--in forty-seven years.I have no children.I bought it,because there's one customer I don't dare leave without coal--and that's Taggart Transcontinental.I keep thinking of what would happen if the railroads collapsed."
He had stopped,then added,"I don't know why I still care about that,but I do.Those people in Washington don't seem to have a clear picture of what that would be like.I have."....
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