The currencies were barter AND gold.

Good point. But I would not disparage the original poster. He/she asked a valid question, and it is hard to grasp everything in the book the first time around, especially if you are trying to listen while driving.

Think of Cheryl. If she had survived, she would have been a great addition to the Gulch.

Lol :-)

Excellent summary of the backstory. You have to read the book multiple times to figure this out. I did so and still missed some of these observations.

You're right. John Galt, when he finally cried out his love to Dagny--I mean, let's face it, that whole speech was, "Dagny! Please! Give me a signal! I want you here!"--told everybody to bug out and build their own mini-Gulches. And they did.

Ladies and gentlemen, please!

Who said anything about bricklayers?

I do recall that Galt did invite someone who was just a truck driver in outside life, but one who did not want to stay a truck driver. That's just one example. I believe Dagny Taggart did not meet one-tenth of the inhabitants of Galt's Culch. If the Gulch were actually the Uncompahgre or "Hot Springs Valley," where now lies the town of Ouray, Colorado, remember that Ouray, even now, has a population of a thousand residents!

Now I did read the book. So let me give you my backstory of it:

Ouray, CO, died twice. First as a mining town, and then as the tourist trap it became, when the Recession killed the tourist trade. So Midas Mulligan bought the Uncompahgre Valley and determined eventually to turn it back into a mining center.

Then came the Runaway Constitutional Convention that scrapped Congress and the Presidency in favor of the unicameral Legislature and the Head of State.

And, of course, the case of Amalgamated Service Co., Lee Hunsacker, et al. v. Mulligan Bank and Midas Mulligan.

After the Illinois Appellate Division reversed Judge Narragansett, Midas Mulligan liquidated his bank and everything he had, repaid the mortgages he had on the Uncompahgre Valley, bought livestock and heirloom seeds, and retired to the Valley. Where he built a log house with his own hands. Log, not brick. Read the book. And I believe he personally hewed every stick of furniture in the place, except for the artistic rarities he bought here and there and brought to the Valley to install in his house.

Then when Judge Narragansett had had enough, Midas invited him to come out. Maybe he hired himself out to the judge to build his farmhouse. From the start, Midas determined to build a trading relationship. No favors, no "village planning," none of that junk. However it happened, Judge Narragansett built his own house, also out of logs. As did Richard Halley. As, by the way, did the Triumvirs: John Galt, Ragnar Danneskjöld, and Francisco d'Anconia.

From that day forward, a few people would trickle in, and maybe the Triumvirs would hire themselves out to build their houses for them in the June Vacation Month.

And then came the destruction of Colorado.

And by then, Dick McNamara was already on the scene. He was a contractor. He it was who organized the laying of the sewer line. And he hired these obscure people to do skilled labor. Including, I remind everyone, pipe layers and electrical linemen. It's all in there. Read it.

You can teach a creative man to lay brick. You cannot necessarily teach a bricklayer to design a building or to contract to erect it.

It actually goes both ways. There were skilled workers in the Gulch plying their trades, as well as Big Shot Industrialists doing work "Beneath" them. D'Anconia himself swung a pick axe carving out the new D'Anconia copper in the gulch. Andrew Stockton ran his own foundry by hand, even if it was very small. Galt himself was a simple handy man.

But at the same time Dick McNamara is a straight construction contractor who joined the strike.

Just like a real economy, as it grows the ability and performance for individuals or small businesses to generalize their skills and job tasks shrinks, while specific contractors take on specific roles. Dwight Sanders won't have time to fix and create Aircraft AND run a pig farm as the strike gets bigger. He'll have to pick one or the other. AND he'll have to do it better than everyone else, lest he get run out of business.

This post seems to miss the point of Atlas Shrugged. Rand does not disparage the worker doing his best at what he/she does. The objection is to those who ask for others t provide them an existence simply because they feel entitled. From what I've seen over the last number of years I do not see a lot of criticism of the workers in society, but demonizing of the "Minds" and creative powers and risk takers that create the jobs for these "lower down the ladder" people is rampant. While I would agree that there are sometimes abuses of power by those in higher authority, by and large there contribution to society far exceeds the government. I don't know if you have read the book, but nearly all those who meet at the Gulch held jobs in the world as "down the ladder" people. Galt himself was a track walker for the railroad. So most of those there had the skills to build where they lived. Galt never criticized those who worked, only those who mooched and felt entitled to do so. And yes if you are a hard working person doing the best you are capable of, then there would always be a place for you in the Gulch.

This post seems to miss the point of Atlas Shrugged. Rand does not disparage the worker doing his best at what he/she does. The objection is to those who ask for others t provide them an existence simply because they feel entitled. From what I've seen over the last number of years I do not see a lot of criticism of the workers in society, but demonizing of the "Minds" and creative powers and risk takers that create the jobs for these "lower down the ladder" people is rampant. While I would agree that there are sometimes abuses of power by those in higher authority, by and large there contribution to society far exceeds the government. I don't know if you have read the book, but nearly all those who meet at the Gulch held jobs in the world as "down the ladder" people. Galt himself was a track walker for the railroad. So most of those there had the skills to build where they lived. Galt never criticized those who worked, only those who mooched and felt entitled to do so. And yes if you are a hard working person doing the best you are capable of, then there would always be a place for you in the Gulch.

Since you are listening to the book now as "time permits" try paying attention this time. I think you kind of missed the point the first time around. The only class of people the producers intended to exclude was the moochers if you were a producer in any capacity you were welcome.

I have had the rare opportunity to know a man such as John Gault. He is swift and agile in his thoughts and actions, so much so that the rest of the world seems to move in slow motion. I have seen that he takes great passion in any task what so ever. Yes, there are many men and women of skill and integrity in the Gulch who share his passion. They are a well oiled machine of highly detailed productivity. Mostly I have seen him dressed in work clothes, with dirty hands, working along side them, he is one of them, even though he could easily spend his time on one of many leather laden jets. He is a man of reason and integrity, a man of action, with no need of an ivory tower or a comfortable chair.

The problem is your basic premise is wrong. You assume that because they were magnates in their field, they were incapable of performing any other task. How do you know they couldn't build their own houses, pave streets or dig sewers? There is no evidence of this in the book? They may not have been skilled at those tasks, but in my experience, those people who are self-made, can do most anything when they want to.

Being successful is not based upon what someone has trained you to do, but upon what you've trained yourself to do. Success breeds success.

For instance, I'm a Software Engineer, self-trained and taught. I earn a very good living being a Software Engineer, but I know that I could build my own house should I need to do so and want to do so. I've always done my own plumbing and wiring and am sure with the correct tools, could install a septic system or pave my driveway (concrete or asphalt, take your pick). If I needed to and with the right tools, I could pave the road in front of my house.

Don't assume that because someone has specialized in a particular task, they are incapable of performing other tasks. Harrison Ford was construction worker before he became famous as an actor. Do you believe that since he became an actor he could no longer work as a construction worker?

However, the real question is not could they, but would they. Successful people can do most anything, but their real talents is in finding those people who do things better than they can and employing them for those tasks. That frees up time for the successful person to do what they are best at. So, undoubtedly, Galt's Gulch had laborers and others who were better and more efficient at their chosen skill than the main characters would have been. I for one am glad that Rand didn't expound on this subject; the book is already long enough!

Probably "undocumented workers" who worked for cash and kept quiet.

It's about Producer vs. Looter.
It's not about Genius vs. Rest Of The Crowd

And yes, it is that simple.

You produce something of value? So you are welcome.

You don't want that? You only want to get something for free, be it by exercising brute force or because of your invaluable holy pure existence? Then you're not.

"they were doing to destroy the world"

Excuse me? "destroy the world"!!!

What on earth are you suggesting? That the innovative entrepreneurs are somehow destroying the world?

Who has been brainwashing you? Washington politicians? Leftist professors (excuse the redundancy)?

It is such thinking that has lead to the quagmire of regulation that stifles innovation, raises costs for everyone and reduces job opportunities.

None of the "heroes" in the book were destroying anything. Well other than Francisco. What they did was to stop contributing their leadership to their businesses. While this contributed to the destruction of the world that wasn't their goal. Their goal was personal freedom, satisfaction, happiness, and maybe just plain preservation.

That's besides the point of saying none of them are capable of doing manual labor. At least to a certain extent. I think Galt, Francisco, Hank, Danagger, Dagny, etc, were all plenty capable of doing manual labor and doing a good job. They had the mind and the work ethic to figure it out.

However, you have a point that because that isn't the path they chose to follow in life they aren't going to do as well as a producer who did go down that path and has the history of experience to make them do the job better.

So would they be capable of doing the manual labor work in the Gulch. Sure. Would the quality, at least initially, be the same as someone who was already working in those industries at the levels starting at the bottom going up? Probably not. Over time if they had to continue, I'm sure they would catch up.

And finally, as plenty others have said, just because the strikers in the gulch that get highlighted are the names we have been introduced to, that doesn't mean they weren't there, or if discovered, wouldn't be welcome.

Current education "leaders" imply that "blue collar" talents and "white collar" talents are mutually exclusive. I believe that to be very different from what Ayn Rand portrays in her heroes. These are men and women that are well rounded, worked from the bottom up, and developed self reliance, from a life of discipline.

Your logic is flawed. You pointing out Rand's illustration of an "ideal" and are attempting to challenge it against a "realty", or as Rand would say "check your premise". Rand was not an elitist, of course brick layers have value, anyone that contributes to the building of the world has a value. It was the secondhanders she had a problem with, those that contribute nothing and yet demand a share. FYI one of Winston Churchill's hobby's was laying bricks. You can still see the walls he built at Chartwell, so please don't argue about creative people and there capabilities, like it somehow makes us snobs... it just shows your ignorance of the facts.

I agree - and I think Galt would have definitely recruited Roark for all the reasons you enumerated.

Thank you for your response!

How can you write an article on a book you obviously have not read?

Roark could also do and didn't mind manual labor. He worked in the quarry hammering and chipping rock when he could not get honest work as an architect. This tells me that Rand had no antipathy whatsoever to manual work. It is all in the attitude and world view, not the job. Not all manual workers are of the socialist/communist/labor union variety. Good ones don't have to be socialist for there is always demand for their work in a free market economy. The holder of the premise to the question clearly does not understand Ayn Rand.

I agree. Mulligan bought the raw land for himself, I believe pre-Galt. Those that moved there to live full time leased the land from Mulligan and built their own houses. It was a secret, secured location and all the adults had to take the oath. That to me would preclude buying an existing town with existing people.

The brick layer in the Gulch knows his worth and doesn't settle for less. The inventor also knows the worth of the laborer and will pay him accordingly. Most of the world either overestimates their value or drastically undersells their own worth.

Hmmmm ... not very self-sufficient are you? All you would need is a few books, or internet access, to construct a perfectly liveable home. It's you lack of self-reliance that would exclude you from the Gulch, not your lack of skill. Oh yes, and your socialist values as well.