Interesting post and comments, Rich. Good one!

it's fun thinking through alternative endings with Rand --
and she started it, with the night of january sixteenth! -- j
.

I know. Sorry I'm so literal...

I know -- it's just imaginative thinking....... -- j
.

But those government people needed Jim right where he was so he could assist them in draining Taggart Transcontinental of all value. In any other position he was worth nothing. His real value was as a conduit to Dagnys productive genius.

yes -- but could a creative reassignment have come
his way in the government, where he would thrive
among people of common loyalties? . there might
have been a position there ....... -- j
.

There isnt a lot you can do at this point (or me for that matter) to give a sustainable future for your children. There are just too many statists and moochers out there to allow for the changes that are necessary. Its going to take a lot of accountability pressures on the government before enough citizens see that they are being raped by the moochers and agree to some changes. I am voting for Trump, primarily because he has no political correctness and will expose how the current policies just arent working. If he just does THAT, I will be happy. I doubt that he could make substantive changes in the direction of the country in 4 short years. Might be helpful for your children, however.

More than a few!

Term, that's easy to say, and I am perfectly ok coasting along, as I am 63. So I am sticking to my principles and as my income goes down, I don't care. But here's the problem. My children. The next generation.

The Devil's Advocate by Taylor Caldwell, 1952- similar in many ways. Perhaps it inspired her?

When I first thought of this I figured a critic could make the claim that Dagny should have done things differently. Going thru these comments it's clear she was locked in to her fate. Rand was an incredible writer.

True. James is a darker character than i remember. A few of his types walk among us.

Hank Rearden seemed a special case to me--particularly in that Francisco, rather than John Galt, undertook to watch for the moment to share the secret with him.

Rand designed each of the characters in AS with a fatal flaw, with the exception of Galt, the perfect man. Dagny's was her attachment to TT, Hank's was his attachment to his wife and family.They had to see these flaws in order to advance. Rand's personification, Galt, waited until the right time to approach each of his strikers, and that time was when the flaw became apparent to them.

I can understand better the idea of using our society to make ,,$$ any way you can without regard for whats legal. (making and selling drugs, selling guns,, dealing in securities schemes. Pho my businesslike SIG, add-ons). There isn't going to be a secure future. So live for today blindly

Rich, there was a board of directors. And her father made Jim the president. He sure screwed Dagny. Anyway, the railroad, like the country, was set up so Dagny was doomed to fail after she had been wrung dry.

Excellent comment, Term. It is getting more and more painful to keep going.

Except Dagny was Rand's hero. She couldn't stoop to those tactics.

He wasn't trying to help the railroad. That's what he told himself. Jim always wanted to destroy. He destroyed Cheryl. He tried to destroy Dagny and Hank, and at the end he stayed to watch Galts torture because he wanted to see him break.

That is an excellent point. In the end it was James and the deals his buddies cooked up that destroyed the economy and the railroad. While it may appear that she and Taggert Transcontinental benefited in the short run she knew in the long run it would bring everyone down. I wasn't taking in the big picture.

You are correct...she did not expect to be destroyed, but she didn't really expect to win, except at first.
Had John not intervened, she and Reardan would probably have died fighting and that would have been a terrible tragedy.

As for benefiting from James' deals...those deals cost her far more than she ever received in return. No...I would have to say that she did not benefit, once the results were tallied.

Of course she benefited from her brother's actions. That is why Ragnar used her salary from her income tax returns to determine how much gold she should be reimbursed rather than profits she made off her shares in the company. He even tells her that that is the reason.

But even so, the writer must obey some conventions of human nature and psychology, or else the reader rejects the product, or the relevant part of it, as contrived.

The writer deterrmines it.