Galt's Gulch and International Trade
Posted by j_IR1776wg 8 years, 10 months ago to Business
Would John Galt have considered having his generators manufactured in China or India assuming their facilities had survived the collapse? Would he have done so to lower his costs and improve his profit margins? Or would he be content to live off of the money he made charging the inhabitants of the Gulch and not become a manufacturer at all?
Big pluses for that one phrase...........!!!!!!!!
If John Galt had anyone to make a deal with, it would have been with some of Ragnar's international customers, who bought his contraband goods with gold they themselves seized from government treasuries.
Naturally Gold* on Delivery.
*or a mutually agreed upon substitute for gold.
The trouble is the gov'ts in the book would say, "Think of all the good this motor could do its value were properly administered by democratically-elected managers for the benefit of all humankind. We should not say it *belongs* and some supernatural attachment to one person just because he created it. He created it using parts made by others, with the help of workers putting the brainpower and physical work into it, and using raw materials of the earth that existed since before homo sapiens appeared on earth. The motor belongs to all humankind." Those administrators would manage it just as they mis-managed the railroads, either totally wasting its value or using some of its value to coerce others as with Project X.
I think Galt would be keenly searching for a place, **any place**, where the gov't would respect his ownership of the motor and would respect its citizens' right to trade stuff they own for stuff they want.
In the United States, I project the following:
We all know that Robert Stadler and Cuffy Meigs died in the fight over Project X in Dunkertown, Iowa, together with every man, woman and child within a hundred miles. We also saw Floyd Ferris and Wesley Mouch take Jim Taggart away from the State Science Institute campus. It's difficult to say whether the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center would still be in operation then. (I place the SSI campus near Lyme N.H., probably on the reservation of the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.)
Now let's move things along: after John Galt made his speech, several mini-Gulches sprang up in what was now wilderness, but of course wasn't always. At the same time, law and order did break down, and a lot of roving marauders and gangs would be roaming about.
But some of those mini-Gulches would band together, in a militia. They would run down Mister Thompson, probably at the Wayne-Falkland Hotel, set up a drumhead court, and try him for treason. After that they need only wait. If I had to name anyone with the wit to go out looking for people to restore law and order, I'd pick Ragnar. And I imagine the first person he would be able to contact would be Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, of Maricopa County, Arizona. The seat of which is Phoenix, the southern terminus of the old Phoenix-Durango Railroad.
Maybe the son/daughter of Prometheus and the Gaia [Anthem].
Actually someone already created the scenario in which the whole society collapses. But not everyone here is going to appreciate it. The author's name is John the Apostle, also known as Saint John of Jerusalem. The work I cite is The Away-Vision (Apocalypsis) from John, or the Revelation to John as St. Jerome called it. He told of this mainly in allegorical signs: a generalized earthquake with simultaneous solar and lunar eclipse manifestations to signify the collapse, then the arrival of a man-with-a-plan--a real braggart, and, to give him credit, a great military captain. See Revelation chapters 6 and 13 for details.
Such a person is a literary hero. By my definition, Dagny Taggart and Henry Rearden are the heroes of AS. John Galt, Francisco d'Anconia, and Ragnar Danneskjöld are anti-villains. "Villains" because, unlike heroes, they have already made their decisions and will ruthlessly carry on to their destinies. "Anti-" because the cause they serve is just rather than unjust.
Henry Rearden said it best of all, to Gwen Ives: "I am discovering a new continent. One that should have been discovered along with America, but wasn't."
Now I must invent a character who sets out to find Atlantis and makes a similar discovery. I could, possibly, use Eddie Willers--or some scout, either independent or belonging to some settlement or other, who discovers him. And doesn't know quite what to make of the raving maniac he has by then become, or how to help him.
If you manufacture something in China, you have to give the Chinese government the plans to how it is built. They have no respect for property rights or invention. Neither Galt nor any other Objective inventor would ever consider manufacturing in China at this point in time.
vote with our choices. . if I were John, I would have
the motors made in the u.s. in a right-to-work State
under license (as long as patents would last) while
I worked in my lab to invent more. . I believe in the
u.s. even to this day. -- j
.
Oh, I do like that.............!!!!!!!!!!!!!