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How Prophetic Was 'Atlas Shrugged'

Posted by Zenphamy 8 years, 11 months ago to Philosophy
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I received this e-mail a couple of days ago. How similar does it strike you as the owner's of John Galt's employer, The 20th Century Motor Co. that caused him to shrug, or remind you of James Taggert? Note the use of the words, 'equal and livable wage', and 'Champion of Change'.

"The White House, Washington
Hi,

I'm Randy, the founder of the Red Hen Baking Company in Middlesex, Vermont.

Our 42 employees are the core of everything we do -- the heart of Red Hen. That is why my wife Liza and I insist on providing paid sick days, an equal and livable wage, health coverage, and other benefits that help everyone balance the work they love with the life they lead. Through these workplace policies, we know we're making our employees more secure, our bakery more productive, and our business more profitable.

It's common sense -- plain and simple. That's why I'm so excited and honored to be at the White House today as a "Champion of Change" for working families. I'll be joining President Obama, Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, and other champions of workplace policies to talk about how crucial they are to building a stronger business. This is too important of an issue for anyone to sit on the sidelines. So you should join us, too.

Watch live at the White House today starting at 12:15 p.m. ET to hear what ordinary people are doing to make an extraordinary difference for America's hardworking men and women.

You can join in on the conversation using the hashtag #WorkingFamilyChamps. Whether you're an employer, an employee, a working mom or dad, or brand new to the workforce, your voice can help lift up the challenges millions of working families face and the solutions that will make a difference.

So I'll hope you'll join us live and be a champion for your employees, coworkers, or your community by standing up for common-sense workplace policies.

Because the bottom line is this: Employees that are happy at work perform better. Focusing on policies that make sense for working families has paid dividends for our business. There's no reason more companies across the country can't do the same thing and realize those benefits.

If you have thoughts, I'd love to hear them. I hope you'll join the conversation today.

Thanks,

Randy

Randy George
Middlesex, Vermont"

Can you point to other predictions from AS that are real today?


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  • 11
    Posted by $ rockymountainpirate 8 years, 11 months ago
    What does a buzz word like 'working family' even mean? The same with 'living wage'. They are so vague. I can say my living wage is $150K a year because I have to support my horses, my $70K truck, the $30K horse trailer and my McMansion.

    She was a prophet. She saw the ground work that was being laid and knew what the end result looked like. Atlas Shrugged was a warning that went unheeded.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 11 months ago
      She was, but to see an email like that from the White House, with that kind of nonsense propaganda that immediately brought to mind, characters and language from AS--well.
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  • 10
    Posted by SaltyDog 8 years, 11 months ago
    The first time I ready Atlas Shrugged was when I was in college. At the time there was a surfeit of science fiction about possible futures; Soylent Green, Logan's Run, and Future World to name a few. So while I did like the read, it fell into the "it can't happen here" category. I re-read it eight or ten years ago, and sadly noted that it was in the 'it has happened here' category. The parallels are uncanny...And has gotten more so by the day. Wesley Mouch type characters have come to be known as czars...an unelected shadow government answerable to no one, save the 'head of state'. The worst part? It was all met with cheers by the masses. And by the time the masses realize what has happened, it will be too late.
    Perhaps Ayn Rand should have titled the work, "Atlas Shrugged: An History:.
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    • 11
      Posted by $ nickursis 8 years, 11 months ago
      Look at how arrogant Mouch and Thompson are. Perfect models for today's politicians. They knew that everything was theirs, and that people served the state. The regulated it until it died, just as they are doing today.
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    • Posted by kevinw 8 years, 11 months ago
      Hello SaltyDog,
      "And by the time the masses realize what has happened, it will be too late"
      Don't forget, when they realize what is happening they will think it is your fault.
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  • Posted by conscious1978 8 years, 11 months ago
    The letter reminds me of several of James Taggart's meetings...a crony and politicians injecting themselves where they have 'no business'.

    Zen, I always wince when I see the word 'prophecy' or 'prophetic' associated with Ayn Rand. I understand general idea of why other people say it, but the implications of her having 'imparted knowledge' are not congruent with your past writing, here...and not what I think you were trying to imply.

    Seeing so many similarities between what she wrote and current events doesn't seem strange, to me. It's like math...'philosophical math'...where consistent ideas add up to (predict) certain outcomes. Given certain conditions, the answers are no surprise.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 11 months ago
      Conscious, as you say. But to have an actual email show up in my box with that business owner, the purposes proposed, and the words used--it was much like deja vu for a moment. Was I reading the book again, or was this reality?
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      • Posted by conscious1978 8 years, 11 months ago
        I watched a documentary on the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami today. There were countless instances where people couldn't grasp the reality of the things happening around them and to them.... It was very sad.

        Those were physical events that you think would be easier to perceive and interpret, but they weren't. So, it's no wonder that the destructive subtleties of statism slip past many today, especially when sugar-coated in an emotional appeal. You can almost predict the talking points coming out of a "Champion of Change" meeting:

        "New guidelines have been proposed by the Administration, requiring business owners to raise wages and benefits for employees, as part of a new White House initiative to help strengthen the private sector with common-sense workplace policies."

        Sound familiar?
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  • Posted by kevinw 8 years, 11 months ago
    Hello Zenphamy,
    I too get these emails from "the White House".

    "Focusing on policies that make sense for working families has paid dividends for our business"

    Do you suppose Randy is a real person? With a real business? If he is then I would bet that blowing obama in the back of a limousine is a policy that makes sense to him.
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  • Posted by coaldigger 8 years, 11 months ago
    Atlas Shrugged is prophetic only because it is a stripped naked picture of mankind. For most, the easy route is to do nothing and have others be your slaves to do everything for you. The trick has always been to find ways of pulling it off. The stupid masses have this something for nothing philosophy equal to, if not greater than, their masters. Tribes consisted of dupes waiting their turn to be the leader with the free food, first dibs on the women and a life of ease. Kings found that the "Devine Right" was the best scam going and it has lasted in one form or other for centuries. With the advent of highly efficient weapons dictators found they could remain in power by having a small, well armed force to control a large poorly armed population.

    All of the do-nothings, both the parasites and the hosts, have a great sense of self-loathing and are particularly susceptible to self sacrifice. The biggest troublemaker is the man who loves himself. He only wants the rewards he has earned by his own actions and he has no need to share his rewards with others. To the contrary, he believes that he would be stealing another man's sense of self by denying him the satisfaction of realizing the profits of his efforts. His weakness is that he is so busy satisfying his desire to create and produce he is vulnerable to being a host and abettor.

    Rand's prophecy that the US would succumb to human nature was not that remarkable. Her organization of her thoughts into a philosophy is her claim to genius. The odds of reversing a flaw in mankind, supported by natural weakness, religion and lore are extremely long. To have made the lasting impression that she has is quite remarkable and encouraging. To most, the message that you have to earn everything you get, your own life is the greatest value and it is all you will ever have, is so unpleasant that they are willing to suspend reason to deny it.
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    • Posted by BeenThere 8 years, 11 months ago
      "Rand's prophecy that the US would succumb to human nature.............."

      AR made it very clear that this was not human nature, it was the philosophy of altruism.........she made very clear that man's course is determined by philosophy, that altruism is counter to human nature, thus destructive of man, that the actual science of philosophy had been subjugated by religion and that no rational, non-contradictory, fully consistent with man's nature had been developed..........so she developed Objectivism (by fully identifying her own philosophy) to continue and complete AS.
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      • Posted by 8 years, 11 months ago
        BeenThere, I haven't read much of you're commenting before. That was an excellent description. Thank you.

        But what do you think of parallels of today that seem so well fitted to her fictional characters and actions?
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        • Posted by BeenThere 8 years, 11 months ago
          "Atlas Shrugged, No Longer Fiction."

          The point is that human nature (man qua man) is the development and use of one's rational faculty to identify existence (reality) for the purpose of survival and enjoyment of one's life.
          Thus, the abandonment of reason is not human nature but the abandonment of it, regardless of the cause, which is, at best, the attempt to circumvent reality and, at its worst, to deny it. Whichever, in any of its forms, (especially to "bamboozle" other people,) it amounts to "I can get away with it!", the "it" being life as the nature of man qua man requires, the attempt (which will always fail) to have A be non-A.

          More specifically, moochers and looters, of any stripe, persuasion or contradictory "philosophy", only see other people as reality, to con, scam, bamboozle, etc., i.e. second handers.......they don't want to deal with existence/reality, they want "others" to do that, then abscond from them in order to continue what they call "living".
          At some point, they can never face the reality of their "blood sucking" because to face that one is "outside of existence" leads, in fact, to doing just that, by either insanity or suicide.


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      • Posted by coaldigger 8 years, 11 months ago
        I understand that AR saw all men with the potential to be heroic but I fear that many are just sloths, without reason, without pride, unwilling and unable to take control of their own life. Perhaps evolution did not go far enough to produce dominant numbers of producers. Those that have no philosophy have reached that state by choice, altruism is their default position that they stand behind as protection from reality. Even in her prophecy of collapse, I am afraid she was an optimist.
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        • Posted by Bobhummel 8 years, 11 months ago
          When the con-artists/dictators/mullahs can promise power and salvation to those who demand equality of outcome even though they have done nothing to earn it, you will have people who will destroy in the name of their master or their master's god. The result - NAZIs, ISIS, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Jung Un, BHO. Individual liberty, personal responsibility and self reliance are to be destroyed. Sacrifice and servitude to our dear leader are to be heralded as heroic in the collective of Plato's Republic or Obama's Ameritopia
          Cheers
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        • Posted by blackswan 8 years, 11 months ago
          Over 2,000 years ago, man could have had an industrial revolution. It was rejected because they would have to give up slavery. Imagine where we would be if we'd had an industrial revolution then!!! It was only after the renaissance and the enlightenment, when men's ideas were pushed to a new level, that the ideas of "we hold these truths to be self-evident" could be at least experimented upon. Clearly, 2,000 years ago, these truths were NOT self-evident, even experimentally. So, Ayn Rand was right, viz., IDEAS precede reality as we make it. Until a critical mass of humanity accepts the principles that we're discussing, there will be no progress. One danger is that some totalitarian systems are now seemingly successfully challenging the principles of laissez-faire capitalism (China in particular). As along as people blindly accept that a communist, state-run system can successfully compete with a relatively free economic system (because they're not looking closely at the evidence, and because our system is being systematically attacked by leftist vermin), the conversation is likely to go nowhere.
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          • Posted by 8 years, 11 months ago
            I don't see it as a rejection based on maintaining slavery. You can see many examples of industry breaking out, particularly in the Roman area of control, i.e. Aqueducts, waste systems, concrete, designed and constructed mills, etc. I maintain that religion took over the 'civilized' portion of the world and shut down that industrial revolution.
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 8 years, 11 months ago
    Ah, they were saboteurs:


    At the Red Hen Baking Co. we are guided by a belief that pure, uncomplicated ingredients and the hands of skilled artisans are the building blocks for great food.

    Red Hen Baking Company was established on September 1, 1999 on Route 100 in Duxbury. Randy George had been baking bread for several years, both in his home state of Maine as well as in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. When Randy and his (then future) wife Eliza Cain decided to move back to Liza’s home turf in the Mad River Valley of Vermont, they did so with the intention of opening a bakery.

    But I bet they only get "upscale" clientele, as no one else can afford them. Truly, The Peoples Choice...
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    • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 11 months ago
      Upscale as in more than equal elite betters compared to "the little people"? Guess those would be rich libs in Maine but I could be wrong.
      Staring at "Red Hen" in this post, albeit the second time, the term "red herring" hopped into my old dino mind.
      Then followed an expression from the 50s: "Better dead than red."
      I could ramble on but I think I better stop.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 11 months ago
      Thanks for checking them out. Portland and Seattle make a lot of sense as havens for progressive liberals. I wonder how much they've donated to the collectivist, in one form or the other?
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  • Posted by gilmorehome 8 years, 11 months ago
    Will "employees" ever be "happy" no matter how much you give them. Look at employee owned businesses - do they work? The question is, will the company thrive and prosper for a viable time period and do all employees understand economics sufficiently to make it work? Why work hard when you can make the same salary doing far less - equal pay no matter the value your contribution? There are many small businesses where the owners, the risk takers, are paying far more to their employees than they are receiving in return for their risk. There only consideration may be is that they get to make the final say - I don't think so, they ultimately are responsible for all and mostly their clients. I'm coming to the opinion that I will take care of myself, barter, take care of home, and help where I can without risking my own life and liberty.
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    • Posted by term2 8 years, 11 months ago
      a living minimum wage, as they call it, just means that all jobs which dont pay enough back to justify what it costs - will simply disappear. Customers just wont be able to buy things that require too much labor cost at that wage rate. Initially prices will be raised, but after a while customers wont want to pay those prices and business volume would drop.
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  • Posted by Temlakos 8 years, 11 months ago
    Nixon and the Ninety-day Wage and Price Freeze, Pay Board, Price Commission, etc.

    I would have liked to see more positive developments, like electrostatic motors and Rearden Metal.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 11 months ago
      Ahhh, yes. Nixon, what a 'wonderful' time to have lived through.
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      • Posted by plusaf 8 years, 11 months ago
        Yep, I lived through that debacle, too, and as soon as it was put in place, I predicted that stress and strain between wages and prices would create a rubber-band snapback that would cancel out any such 'benefits' from the Freeze.

        Of course, I was right... but so many people thought It Was A Good Idea.
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    • Posted by Owlsrayne 8 years, 11 months ago
      There are individual inventors and engineers who are working on such motors. One in particular on You Tube: LaserHacker. He has become an open source for others in building static motors. From what I can tell he has considerable distain for the good old Govt. Patent Office. That why he shares his experiments online.
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  • Posted by dryan2902 8 years, 11 months ago
    I write from Flint, MI home of the UAW & the sit-down strike of 1937. A.S. correctly shows what happened to GM (20th Century Motors) This place is a ghost town. Sites where plants once stood are now empty lots grown over with weeds. want to see?
    Search 1914 N Dort Hwy, Flint, MI on google earth. The two huge empty lots you see was AC Spark Plug, I expect any day to hear about implementation of Directive 10-289.
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 8 years, 11 months ago
    Zen, I can't begin to descibe how much I believe AR was a prophet. She saw through the smoke and mirrors then that have really been covering power politics for the last couple hundred years. Hate to ssay this, but if you go read some specific history sections that focus in detail on the politics and details of the early America, we may have built the country on the idea of Freedom, but it was a slightly different version from what a lot of people assume. Our government, both parties have been lying and manipulating us for many, many years, and what we have is the result, more rulers and regulations, bought and sold by special interest, and almost always involving some tax or fee, for nothing. Take it all and give it to who you owe for the last election. Same thing went on in the 1800's, 1900's, so Ayn had a lot of material to work with, both from the US and Russia. The prophecy of government control of everything is completely true to form. She nailed it, the only thing she missed was the fashion then to call your little part "The Peoples....". Now all pretense is dropped and the words Democrat or Republican substitute.
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    • Posted by kevinw 8 years, 11 months ago
      Hello nickursis,
      Ayn Rand did so much more than predict the future. She saw it happen in Russia and she saw it happening here as you said, but she saw why it happened there and why it was happening here. And then she told us why it was happening and how it was going to keep happening. And she gave us the tools to do something about it. If we are up to the task.

      Like Zen said; Genius.

      Edit; Great big comment, little bitty box.
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  • Posted by JoleneMartens1982 8 years, 11 months ago
    Ayn Rand, she was a very wise lady! I wish I could have met her. Lol. She would have disliked me, I have a hard time saying what I mean sometimes, and often am taken as rude in the way I bluntly state opinions with little reguard to others. However I don't lie and I don't beat around the bush to get others to follow me. Like business now days. I also will not work for a business that is in bed with our govt or one that I don't believe in. If more people still stood for something, what a world it would be!
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 11 months ago
    Very close. But she didn't foresee the government bailing out General Motors and a few other points - unless that part is yet to come. 20th Century didn't fail overnight and Ma Chalmers did get a bucket load of handouts using phony money.

    I believe we are in an early phase of the book. the wishful thinking section.
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  • Posted by jimslag 8 years, 11 months ago
    Like RMP, my living wage should be $150K. I have a kid in college, my truck is only $50K and I definitely don't live in a McMansion but it is a roof over my head. However, the $150K would be nice.
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  • Posted by JCLanier 8 years, 11 months ago

    "How prophetic was Atlas Shrugged"?

    If you want to find an answer in science or how much interest you have to pay, etc., you calculate, you work with formulas, math...
    Numbers can show you exactly where you are heading and exactly where that outcome will take you.

    Rand's work, AS, is a formula that shows
    exactly where we were headed at the time it was written and exactly what the outcome would be in the future if we continued on that path.
    Is AS a prophecy? Or is it a mathematical equation that when the principals are applied you get the results: A = A.

    You could say that there is an explicit warning in AS, that when these principals are not applied you get what we have today- is this a prophecy or calculated results?
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  • Posted by Mattinglynn 8 years, 11 months ago
    With the exception of the word 'equal', there is nothing wrong with a business owner deciding how to use his own profits - or to generate more. If he / she finds it to be advantageous to their business interests to pay more than the competition, so be it. It will be interesting to find out how the experiment ends up. A lot of today's progressive terminology, such as 'living wage', 'giving back to the community', are catchphrases that politicians and social engineers like to apply to (someone else's) businesses, but the 'proof of the pudding' will be if it can it stand the test of time when applied to a business that relies on morally attained profit, rather than government edict to survive.
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  • Posted by Owlsrayne 8 years, 11 months ago
    If people such ourselves who are unable to shrug will have to live via an underground economy. I live in rural Az. and haven't been able to get a job in three years. The government delivers empty promises, since we have a Hollowman for president. I'm to the point now that creating primitive craft items to sell on ebay will provide some income.
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  • Posted by $ Stormi 8 years, 11 months ago
    Rand was prophetic before AS, look at the simple small "Anthem". Did she not predict that the removal of "I" was coming, as kids in school today hear, "There is no I in team" garbage? Did she not predict the banning of the incandescent light bulb in that same novel, where the bulb was locked away from the people, so they could better control them? She predicted the end of books being available to any but leaders of society, for fear knowledge might set them free via their power to think. She understood what was to come if citizens did not take personal responsibility and use reason in their decision making - at work, at home- in their lives. It was never about altruism for her, it was about being our personal best and allowing others to struggle toward their personal best. This owner seems to care about his employees, but he is on the wrong track when he points to Obama as wanting business to succeed.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 11 months ago
      Care for the employees? By giving everyone EQUAL pay? It'd be very hard for me to believe that out of 42 employees, that they're all giving equal value for work done.
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      • Posted by Bobhummel 8 years, 11 months ago
        Wait till someone gets a little pay raise or one more day off a month than any of the others and they find out about it. ...to each according to their needs - "but what about my needs?" To be consistent with history, this place probably doesn't have pink slips, just a firing squad.
        Cheers
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      • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 11 months ago
        Equal pay? Does that include equal retirement or equal taxes? BS. In militaryi sealift command the civilian mariners came in three sizes. Do Nothing, Do nothing and piretend to do everything, Do Everything, To replace one in the latter group required hiring three from group two or six from group one. On the other hand it was a better percentage than General Motors.

        Equal pay means equal work. When working for the government I found the Russian system firmly in place - in most places. They pretend to pay us we pretend to work.

        The rest were inclined to read books like AS.
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        • Posted by 8 years, 11 months ago
          It's interesting that even in situations like you describe, you still have some that take pride in their work--producers.
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          • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 11 months ago
            They are followers of Dagny unable to be second or third best. One day some learn it's far more productive to be the best at mooching and looting the pre-eminent career of value.Those kind of folks will always rise to the top.On another day the learn the satisfaction of watching it all fall knowing that they had excelled once again simply by contributing the one essential necessary element - nothing.

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  • Posted by woodlema 8 years, 11 months ago
    Here is their website, and their mission. Lets see how long they can stay in business when their primary goal is not profit.

    http://www.redhenbaking.com/

    To produce premium quality breads and pastries with traditional methods and carefully selected high quality ingredients. To do this while striving to minimize our impact on the environment, to support the growers and producers of our ingredients, and to provide the finest baked goods and service to our customers.

    We achieve the above by:

    Marketing our baked goods within 100 miles of the bakery and providing daily delivery to stores and restaurants within that area.

    Operating a café that is an outlet for our baked goods, provides a range of high quality food and beverages for take-home sale, and functions as a community space for meetings, art and music shows, and other special events.

    Honoring the employees that are at the core of everything we do and fostering a work environment of mutual respect and open communication.

    Profiting from this work and using that resource to contribute to the betterment of our employees and the community.

    I will say however, that this is THEIR business and they are certainly FREE to use what profits they earn any way they choose. The sad part is Obama wants to FORCE everyone to serve at the behest of others against their own free will.
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    • Posted by term2 8 years, 11 months ago
      I say that most if not all of their customers care about what THEY get out of the transaction, not the idea that they are paying more than they need to so others can have what he calls a "living wage". What this means is that if a competitor comes along and pays the going rate for labor, he can charge customers less and still afford the freshness and all the customer benefits. I hope that happens for the sake of the customers
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      • Posted by Bobhummel 8 years, 11 months ago
        Sort of like all the people who make sure they have the Starbucks label showing as they hold their $6 cup of coffee walking through the airport. Who pays $6 for something worth $1 if not for the perceived ego boost. But one really has to be in a real "ego-deficit" to stand in line for 15 minutes to get coffee in a mermaid cup for $6. I do congratulate SBUX for pulling it off. $10M in profit selling coffee.
        Cheers
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    • Posted by khalling 8 years, 11 months ago
      they are trying to to destroy the story of the little red hen
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      • Posted by 8 years, 11 months ago
        I think that story got killed along with Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, Brer Rabbit, Aesop's Fables, anything with Ogres. They're just so inappropriate, don't you see.
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        • Posted by khalling 8 years, 11 months ago
          LetsShrug is on a mission to re-tell these stories with a twist. :)
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          • Posted by woodlema 8 years, 11 months ago
            Skip to comments.
            The Ant and the Grasshopper - modern version
            TheCitizen.com ^ | 2010 | Unknown

            Posted on ‎2‎/‎1‎/‎2010‎ ‎11‎:‎41‎:‎37‎ ‎PM by bogusname

            The Ant and the Grasshopper - modern version

            (I got this in an email today. Again, I am not claiming to have written this)

            Old version:

            The ant worked hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

            The grasshopper thought the ant was a fool and laughed and danced and played the summer away.

            Come winter, the ant was warm and well fed.

            The grasshopper had no food or shelter, so he died out in the cold.

            Moral of the story: Be responsible for yourself!

            Modern version:

            The ant worked hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

            The grasshopper thought the ant was a fool and laughed and danced and played the summer away.

            Come winter, the shivering grasshopper called a press conference and demanded to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others were cold and starving.

            CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC showed up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

            America was stunned by the sharp contrast.

            How could this be in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper was allowed to suffer so?

            Kermit the Frog appeared on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cried when they sang, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

            Acorn staged a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations filmed the group singing, ‘We shall overcome’.

            Jeremiah Wright then had the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

            Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid exclaimed in an interview with Larry King the ant had got rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both called for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

            Finally, the EEOC drafted the Economic Equity and Anti - Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

            The ant was fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home was confiscated by the government Green Czar.

            The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he was in, which just happened to be the ant's old house, crumbled around him because he did not maintain it.

            The ant had disappeared in the snow.

            The grasshopper was found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, was taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorized the once peaceful neighborhood.

            Moral of the story: Be careful how you vote in 2016.
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  • Posted by Esceptico 8 years, 11 months ago
    Let us not forget the CEO guy who made a big media splash this week by renouncing his $1.2 million salary and paying everyone the same: $70k. What a guy, right?

    Actually, I think most politicians suffer from DARVO. Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. A behavior of perpetrators of wrongdoing, when accused of attacking their victim, reversing the roles of victim and offender. Rand illustrates the behavior, but the term was not invented until about 1997.
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