What The Hell America!

Ayn Rand’s big idea was that society is made up of two classes.

On the one side were the producers. These were great men and women, who did big, unimaginably important things. They were all scientists, or artists, or titans of industry who focused exclusively on themselves—and through their greatness, lifted all of humanity with them.

On the other side were the looters. These were petty, mean, little people who contributed nothing to the greater good. Some of them were the catatonic, grasping poors. Others were the political bureaucrats and rent seekers, who schemed and connived because they were incapable of building and creating.

In Atlas Shrugged the producers go on strike. Led by a mysterious figure named John Galt, they withdraw from American society to their own private Xanadu. And as a result, America falls apart while these heroes build their own New Eden.

The last four months have proven that Rand was right about modern society being made up of producers and looters. She was wrong about which was which.

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Let’s start with the looters. It turns out that it’s the titans of industry who are the scheming rent seekers.

Elon Musk did not become the richest man in the world by building businesses that can succeed in the marketplace. He made his fortune by unloading a useless piece of software during a bubble mania. He grew his fortune by relying on government assistance—subsidies and tax abatements for his companies, contracts from the Defense Department and NASA, tax credits for customers buying electric vehicles. Now he has taken that strategy to its logical next step: Instead of lobbying the government from the outside to help keep his businesses afloat, he spent $250 million to buy a presidency, then assumed a high position in the government and has reportedly used it to drive contracts to his companies. His latest gambit involves wielding the power of the American government to entice foreign countries to purchase his products, too.

If ever there was a real-life John Galt, it would be Jeff Bezos, but he too has opted to play the influence game. Bezos jumps when Donald Trump demands it and uses his wealth to render tributes in the hopes of getting his piece of the government action.

The rest of the titans aren’t much better. Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Peter Thiel—these people aren’t creating and building. They’re scheming and looting. They’re rent-seeking, doing whatever is necessary to leverage the power of the government to their advantage.

Without the backing of the government, they’d be reduced to merely fighting their way through the competition of the marketplace. And they want to avoid that at all costs.

Trump, of course, is the biggest looter of them all. Prior to becoming president, he was perpetually declaring bankruptcy to get out from under his debts. When—if?—he chooses to leave office, he will do so having looted tens of billions of dollars from the U.S. government, foreign governments, and various villains seeking his favor.

Not to mention the common rubes who willingly give him their votes and their money.

But it turns out that there is a class of people who have been quietly keeping society afloat, doing the hard, invisible work that makes everything else possible.