I don't think Galt and the rest of the heroes were actively trying to destroy America. They merely stepped aside and allowed the looters to follow their evil ideas to their logical conclusions. Feelings cannot produce wealth; only Reason can.

The idea of letting the current system collapse.. Or even using compliance to help it move along even faster is something that regularly crosses my mind. First, we need to keep in mind that when it comes down to it there is really no place to hide. Second and probably more important the collapse in the book was by design. They now only knew it was coming, but were ready for it. Ragnar was converting the looters loot into gold and giving it back to the rightful owners. As he said, the world will need to be rebuilt after the collapse, and this would help speed that process along. Midas was also sitting on a rather large pile of useful capitol and ready to start financing the rebuild after the collapse. We don't really have that as far as I know. It is probably something that needs to exist. The other choice would be a lot of time spent in a barter economy and the loss of a large number of more advanced products. You wont see a car manufacturer selling new cars in a barter economy, So, don't worry about the collapse as that is inevitable. Its what happens immediately after that matters. Here is where we again run into a problem. For things to actually get better the rest of the country/world will need to understand the reason thing happened. In the book, the world got to hear John Galts speech. There was even evidence in the book that people were getting it. They now knew what the problem really was and so acting to fix it was now within their grasp. We don't have that. Right now, if the economy were to collapse capitalism would again get the blame and looters and moochers everywhere would be allowed to keep trying to evade the truth. So, before a collapse we would need to take control of the message. We would need to be living in a world where instead of Rachel Maddow writing a piece proving that she never read the book, people who have actually read the book and were able to think their way through it were getting their stuff read far and wide. If these things can be put in place then I would welcome the collapse. In the meantime I need to live in a world that is on the short fat side of the medical equipment and prescription supply chain. So, it is in my best interest to fight like crazy. Even then though, I will eventually reach my breaking point. At which time you can expect to find me flipping burgers at a road side diner in North Dakota.

Atlas Shrugged was a fictional story with a powerful message; it was not a blueprint to be followed.
It is much easier to tear down a society then it is to build one.
Look at the infrastructure of what is good and build upon that foundation.
You seem to me from what you have shared to be in the right place to do good things. Why change that?

I don't get the people who want to destroy society in the hopes that something better rises from the ashes. This is the flood myth that crops up throughout human history.

It understates the problem, though, to call it the dictatorial behavior of President Obama or President Bush. That implies that our system is stable and our culture views on individualism are fine, but we just got a lousy president.

Having a terrific job in a good university is not a rare vehicle to living an honest life. People all over seek out problems they can solve for willing clients -- repairing cars, testing medicines, making video games, winning grants from companies to research new technologies, giving people cash for their old stuff that that they fix up and sell to other willing customers, watching children while their parents do these things. People serving customers are everywhere. Things are good. We need to work to make them better. We're nowhere near fleeing as the lights going out and the world collapses.