*Are we doomed?
“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed.” – Ayn Rand
No. We're not. Remember that Rand was writing this in the 50's. The same conditions existed then as exist now, yet we were not doomed.
It is always fascinating to me that this marvelous philosophy based upon the glorification of a mythical "producer" sprang from a person who never produced a thing. And her legacy is carried on by an institute which survives on grants. Funny old world.
Complain all you want about her ideas but I quite frankly donÂ’t care where ideas come from if they are sound. I find that her concepts have a lot of merit even if some are misguided and they are held in an idyllic world.
Such might not hold in a pure form but virtually no governmental or economic thought woks in a pure form. The world is simply not black and white enough for that to happen. As far as doomed, I would definitely bet that we are doomed to something very similar to what Rand envisioned. The question is not whether or not such is possible but rather what king of timeline we are talking about. ALL empires fall, that is a given and the most common reason is they become bloated and weak. Rome fell, no matter how powerful they were in their peak and at some time, America will fall as well. Is that time now? I donÂ’t know. I am hesitant to say that it is likely even with a lot of what is going on now and I say that because people are still fat and happy with very little concern weather or not they are going to eat today. Those that are usually go hungry out or pride or ignorance, not because there is nothing to eat or no system in place to care for them.
We do need to fight now though to improve the situation because when there are hungry mobs in the street and signs that we actually are in real danger of falling, then it is too late to act. Unfortunately, that is when most wait to do something. One of the vices of being human.