Atlas Shrugged has a similar theme to Fountainhead. Here the author classifies people in 2 categories. 1. The Inventors/ Entrepreneurs/ Men of Action who run the economy and the world at large.
2. The Workers/ Social Workers/ Politicians who can give nothing to society if not for Group 1.
The Hero of the story John Galt is an Marvel of a Electrical Engineer and Inventor. He works for the Twentieth Century Motor company. When the new management takes charge they decide on a new payment policy to propagate equality and brotherhood. The policy is that people would be paid based on their need and not on their ability or skill. While the people who are enterprising are asked to work harder for the common good.
This policy brings out the worst in people. They begin to put lesser effort in their work.The shameless ones advertise their needs and bring on additional ones. But the more self respecting people do not get anything and begin to waste away. John Galt recognizes the fault with this idea and revolts, he leaves the company. He meets up with his college friends Francoise (A Copper Mining Giant) and Ragnar (A European Aristocrat)and his Philosophy professor.
They decide that they will show the world how important the people of Group 1 are. They destroy all their achievements so that the people of Group 2 cant use them and begin to convince more people in Group 1 to Revolt. The people in Group 1 include - Industrialists, Musicians, Artists, Bankers, Doctors, Judges etc.
Dagny Taggart is passionate about her railway where she is a VP for Operations. She respects other Men of Action - Hank Rearden who is a self made man with coal, iron mines and steel mills. Ellis Wyatt with his Oil Extractions. And many more manufacturers and entrepreneurs.
The Government keeps coming up with restrictions on Production, Competition and Ownership on Group 1 to please Group 2. But actually this also makes the lives of Group 2 worse as Factories begin to close. Dagny struggles through them but keeps her railroad alive at all costs. John Galt convinces people in Group 1 to quit and join his people in a secret valley where they have self sufficient lives with advanced technology.
The Government Rules keep increasing and all the people in Group 1 quit. The country falls to pieces with infighting, unrest and weapons of mass destruction being used by the warring factions. Finally when everything is destroyed - John Galt decides to bring his people out into the world to create a community by his rules.
The book is readable except for the 3 hour speech by John Galt which converts to 30 pages. The best part of the book is the part where a tramp who used to be a worker with the Twentieth Century Motor company meets Dagny and gives his view of why the company failed. It says so much more than the speech of John Galt.
The hard part to digest is that the people of Group 1 are shown as picture perfect and the Group 2 as total misfits while mostly we find a mix of good and bad in varying degrees in all kinds of people.
2. The Workers/ Social Workers/ Politicians who can give nothing to society if not for Group 1.
The Hero of the story John Galt is an Marvel of a Electrical Engineer and Inventor. He works for the Twentieth Century Motor company. When the new management takes charge they decide on a new payment policy to propagate equality and brotherhood. The policy is that people would be paid based on their need and not on their ability or skill. While the people who are enterprising are asked to work harder for the common good.
This policy brings out the worst in people. They begin to put lesser effort in their work.The shameless ones advertise their needs and bring on additional ones. But the more self respecting people do not get anything and begin to waste away. John Galt recognizes the fault with this idea and revolts, he leaves the company. He meets up with his college friends Francoise (A Copper Mining Giant) and Ragnar (A European Aristocrat)and his Philosophy professor.
They decide that they will show the world how important the people of Group 1 are. They destroy all their achievements so that the people of Group 2 cant use them and begin to convince more people in Group 1 to Revolt. The people in Group 1 include - Industrialists, Musicians, Artists, Bankers, Doctors, Judges etc.
Dagny Taggart is passionate about her railway where she is a VP for Operations. She respects other Men of Action - Hank Rearden who is a self made man with coal, iron mines and steel mills. Ellis Wyatt with his Oil Extractions. And many more manufacturers and entrepreneurs.
The Government keeps coming up with restrictions on Production, Competition and Ownership on Group 1 to please Group 2. But actually this also makes the lives of Group 2 worse as Factories begin to close. Dagny struggles through them but keeps her railroad alive at all costs. John Galt convinces people in Group 1 to quit and join his people in a secret valley where they have self sufficient lives with advanced technology.
The Government Rules keep increasing and all the people in Group 1 quit. The country falls to pieces with infighting, unrest and weapons of mass destruction being used by the warring factions. Finally when everything is destroyed - John Galt decides to bring his people out into the world to create a community by his rules.
The book is readable except for the 3 hour speech by John Galt which converts to 30 pages. The best part of the book is the part where a tramp who used to be a worker with the Twentieth Century Motor company meets Dagny and gives his view of why the company failed. It says so much more than the speech of John Galt.
The hard part to digest is that the people of Group 1 are shown as picture perfect and the Group 2 as total misfits while mostly we find a mix of good and bad in varying degrees in all kinds of people.
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