And you thought is was just the VP that had a bad habit of lifting other people’s ideas
“He didn’t invent iron ore and blast furnaces, did he?”
“Who?”
“Rearden. He didn’t invent smelting and chemistry and air compression. He couldn’t have invented his Metal but for thousands and thousands of other people. His Metal! Why does he think it’s his? Why does he think it’s his invention? Everybody uses the work of everybody else. Nobody ever invents anything.”
She said, puzzled, “But the iron ore and all those other things were there all the time. Why didn’t anybody else make that Metal, but Mr. Rearden did?”
Part One, Chapter Nine Atlas Shrugged
Thanks to Jeff Carter via Instapundit for jogging my memory.
That sounds an awful lot like this
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
It sure seems like Ayn Rand had some kind of crystal ball or something.
Hey, guess who invested in roads and bridges? You did. I did. We all did. And that business that someone else built invested the most. Greedy Capitalists created this unbelievable American system that has allowed anyone to thrive. People like our Narcissist in Chief are doing everything in their power to tear it down. I remember when we had a President that tore down walls to advance independence rather than tearing down the successful to advance dependence.
I’ll leave the last bit to somebody that helped create our unbelievable American System
To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.
Hey when do I get my cut of the profits off the holster Michael made me, I mean I made myself, I mean, he made, but with my help, never mind I am just gonna sue.
Ayn Rand, like President Obama, decried democracy. If you want to follow the President and his ilk, you have to use the correct playbook — the Communist Manifesto.
Looking at the Constitution and trying to understand our President is about as helpful as an Italian-French dictionary — in Poland.
Actually, she decried -unlimited- democracy, because the only result that could have is a dictatorship. Why? Because the only leaders in an unlimited democracy are the most successful demagogues.
The founding fathers also were wary of democracy, which is why they set up a republic with a two-house legislature, and the lower house elected every two years by the people, with the upper house elected by the states so that the ideas of the people could cool off a bit before becoming law.
Sad. Scary, and sad.
AhHA!
I knew there was something about that statement that was bugging me as well, and you just discovered it. Thank you!
Of course, by the same token, I am pretty goddamned astonished that Our Glorious President would actually have the stones to say something so remarkably similar to the things the Looters said… I doubt he ever read anything by Rand, but I am sure his speech writers did.
Rand was one of the crappiest writers I have ever had the misfortune of reading, but damned if she was not right.
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Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
Where in the hell did he get that idea. Companies making money with the internet is a side benefit. Doesn’t he know why the internet was originally invented? I did a little time in a community college and I know the answer to that. I guess that high dollar education isn’t quite worth the money spent.
He didn’t get that idea, he KNOWS it; no such project could possibly have succeeded without proper management by government experts such as himself!
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