And convince important producers to leave

The seemingly swift collapse of Communism was largely because Communist countries did not spend money that was made up out of thin air, as most of the industrialized countries do now. The frightening thing about the current economic systems of the US and Europe is that by printing ridiculous amounts of money, reality has been denied for sufficiently long that producers have no realistic expectation of a timeline for a return to reality. The entire society is predicated on a "willing suspension of disbelief". Ms. Rand nailed it in that respect.

that's the problem. . let me do a little research;;;
I'm retarded and can squeeze it in!!! -- j
.

I have no idea, John. Unfortunately every penny I earn is on the books.

I love ebay, Emma -- just found a pair of "Elvis microphones"
in Albion, Michigan which are in fabulous condition,
for a fair price, one by bidding in ebay and the other
by private deal with the seller. . the first was legit
purchase, and the second -- gray market.

we paid through paypal, though;; I need to find
the barter market where I trade a clean copy of
"It's A Beautiful Day" for a Shure SM57 mic.
wonder how I get there ....... -- j
.

I find it interesting that we can see this in the disintergration of government subsidized programs which includes Amtrak. Also, we see the needier get needier so we see those people take to the streets to destroy and steal because of their twisted ideas on authority. It is happening on a african/american presidents watch. He needs to blame someone so the rich gets' taxed and the christians get persecuted. I know it's verbal right now,actions will come soon thats what Hitler did.
In a way Galts Generator/Motor is partially to blame. The unit that he has running in the Gulch must have an antenna array hidden somewhere to draw atmosheric electrical charges, & electric power lines (magnetic fields generated by those lines will increase electrostatic charges in the air). Galts device was a technological advancement on Tesla's experiments. So, Galt inadvertently helped in the demise of the world.

I'm confused, too. It's a book of fiction, for goodness sakes. And it's 1,000+ pages as it is. Was Rand supposed to include thousands of producers or use 'real life' timing? (Although at this point, real time US is moving pretty fast toward destruction). Geez; she would have died before she finished writing it! Also, it is abundantly clear that John Galt simply removes the producers and leaves the looters to their own devices, which are pretty much non-existent. Sabotage?? That would be 100% against Galt's morality.

Black market, John. I have read that it is already substantial.

This is what I was thinking...

D'Anconia blew up his own mines.
Rearden, was speaking of his own mills.

It seems to me that private property was a limit Galt would not cross.

I just wish that we had a medium of barter which
would circumvent the tentacles of big brother, so
that a virtual gulch could develop -- given transport
methods which could also be bartered. . hmmmmm. -- j
.

Thanks! The speed of the story--the time-lapse aspect--was something I thought about all the time when I was consulting on movie scripts. How to make it plausible to an audience today? In some ways, the tech revolution helped: What if Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel and a few others had disappeared 12 years ago (despite the fact that most of them are liberals :))? Fortunately, movie audiences are used to "the willing suspension of disbelief."

I too was astounded by the swift collapse of communism. If only Ayn had been alive to see it....

I have always thought that "the motor of the world"
meant the people who move the world. . this seemed
sufficient for me, since AS used to be fiction. -- j

p.s. sabotage -- by direct action -- would only be
moral if it took out the looters' strangulation systems,
like finances and communications, I would say. . with
the innocent people unharmed, hopefully.
.

Interesting point about Roark.

As much as I would like to think I am not replaceable, I am. In fact, my success resulted in my university's decision to hire three more faculty. Between the three of them, especially after my mentoring them the last two years, they could replace me. They are all Gulch-worthy producers, and in some ways, more productive than I am. When I shrug completely, I will not worry at all that my legacy will disappear without me. This is part of my point in this entire thread. The economic foundation for free market capitalism in America is much more structurally sound (at least now) than was suggested in Atlas Shrugged.

Well said, David.
The speed with which the collapse happens is the hardest part for me, followed by the small number of producers without whom the economy cannot function. Perhaps I am looking at the situation with a filter too much geared toward today, but I find it hard to see such a sudden collapse happening today. I know that Communism fell quite quickly, but the economic underpinning there was paper thin. The multitude of sources from which one can buy things now makes such a collapse in an industrialized nation far less likely than it might have been in prior generations.

I wonder if they will do a remake of Fountainhead like they did AS

Well if you want to know how he would stop the motor of the world you could ask yourself what the motor of the world runs on?

I believe the answer is clear - the human mind. Especially those great minds dedicated to productivity, creativity, and reason. So he set out to remove those minds from the world.

I have to confess to not really understanding the question. It is kind of the theme of the entire book.

My dad always wondered why I came home so angry from AT&T. Now he knows...their CEO is a Jim Taggart. And people just followed the union so blindly. I am SO glad I am out of there!

All Rand's heroes behave with consummate morality.
Francisco could destroy his mines because they were his to destroy.
Ragnar stole from thieves.

Galt could not have sabotaged Dagny's trains because they were not his nor were they ill-gotten.

I don't believe she was ambiguous at all.

A very simple yet elegant way of putting it... I agree

Thanks, jbrenner, for linking to my scene commentary, and for raising a really interesting question. Two thoughts in that regard.

First, when Dagny meets Galt in Part III, she asks him about the Starnesville story:
DAGNY: You told them that you would stop the motor of the world.
GALT: I have.
DAGNY: What have you done?
GALT: I've done nothing, Miss Taggart. And that's the whole of my secret.
I’ve always thought that Galt’s statement implies that he is letting the world collapse on its own once the best producers are removed.

Second, the point that it couldn’t have happened that fast, or with relatively few people removed, Rand said something relevant in notes she made while writing Atlas:
"Theme: What happens to the world when the prime movers go on strike.
"This means: a picture of the world with its motor cut off. Show: what, how, why. The specific steps and incidents—in terms of persons, their spirits, motives, psychology, and actions—and, secondarily, proceeding from persons, in terms of history, society and the world.
"… For the purpose of this story, I do not start by showing how the second-handers live on the prime movers in actual, everyday reality—nor do I start by showing a normal world…. I start with the fantastic premise of the prime movers going on strike. This is the heart and center of the novel…. I set out to show how desperately the world needs prime movers, and how viciously it treats them. And I show it on a hypothetical case—what happens to the world without them."
[Journals of Ayn Rand, 390-93]

Note Rand’s description of Galt’s strike as a “fantastic premise.” I think she used the word in the literal sense: “of or pertaining to a fantasy.” There are many fantastic aspects in the story. E.g.:
* The small number of producers who are at the top of the pyramid of ability and without whom the economy cannot function;
* The speed with which it happens: Galt’s strike begins 12 years before Dagny hears about Starnesville and has already had severe consequences; the story ends the next year and society has completely fallen apart. This is the literary equivalent of time-lapse photography.
* Galt’s persuasiveness: A track-worker can walk into a corporate CEO’s office, without an appointment, and by sheer force of argument and personality convince him to abandon his company, his career, and even the world.

The striking thing is that Rand tells the story in such a seamless, plausible way that all of this seems perfectly natural and realistic.

Agreed

I agree with most of the comments here that Galt would not need to physically sabotage anything in order to cause the equipment failures. Although it would speed up the process of destruction, the theme of the story is that all that is needed is the removal of the competent for the incompetent to self destruct.

What would happen to your classes if you were suddenly removed and there were no competent people to take your place?

While John was largely passive the other two of the three that made it happen were aggressive and destructive. One used his reputation and their confidence in him to destroy billions and perhaps trillions of dollars from stock. The other a pirate. Today both would be called terrorists, On using finance and market manipulation as his weapon of choice and the other open terrorist acts.

It is also true that the sons of liberty, at least for the first several years would be called terrorists in today's world as well. Let severe than either of these, many a British tax collector found themselves stripped, tarred and feathers for performing their role in British taxation. It is quite surprising that Thomas Paine was never arrested for sedition for printing many of the pamphlets he printed.

In AS stopping the mortar of the world took three people. One who argued the logical and rational case to those that would hear it, and two that pushed the economy and social structure to the point where people became willing to listen in the first place.

The same was true of the US revolutionary war. Without the press of Ben Franklin, the writing of Thomas Payne, and the retaliation of Samuel Adams and others who organized the sons of liberty it would not have occurred.

To stop the current motor what we need is a planned approach, with specific mile markers along the way. I would prefer that it all be peaceful, but I am not sure it will ever succeed without some unrest occurring. I think there is plenty of that now and their will be more. Our side needs to learn to never let a crisis go to waste as the other side has.

Rand's vivid descriptions of what happens in a collectivist society lifts the veil of false rhetoric from our eyes and shows us what's really happening and how very close we are to the world of John Galt.