Atlas Shrugged illustrated how they will destroy themselves before they will give up power over others.

Looks remarkably like the host parasite model.

there is what I call a "trump effect" on off road stuff to be sure, also in industrial uses of our products. I am tired of dealing with all this stuff and its time to retire.

Giving money to James Taggart to run it will destroy it. The renewed political interest in spending on "infrastructure" will lead to a big demand for "off road" equipment as the only way left to travel.

i think that the one thing socialists fear most is that the productive people will just stop working and innovating when they realize they are being stolen from. That will leave the socialists with no one to loot and they are on their own.

Because it was dishonest and illegal? The Obama stooge at the top sure wouldn't.

This is beyond bananas.

I got out of the medical business in 2007 because of the regulation and stupidity of the FDA. Now I am ready to sell off my last business making off road equipment. Just too much wasting of time on government stuff. Perhaps the snowflake democrats can run the businesses in the future.

I certainly did not hear of anyone at GM speaking out. All I remember was the aforementioned threatening letter. I didn't see it until 6 weeks after it happened, which was the next time I saw my parents. I was just flat out stunned. That was the moment that I realized we were in a banana republic. The wording reminded me of The Godfather.

Why would anyone at GM speak out? The bondholders and shareholders were getting short shrift while the employees (i.e. anyone at GM) were getting their retirement benefits at my parents' expense.

Yes, that's why Toohey said not to. He was warning Keating that looking at the rationalizations of the concretes misses the point of what is being "accomplished". The mechanics is in the philosophy, not the excuses for taking over a particular business like making cars that will no longer be made.

Haven't the viros made importing exotic woods illegal? Real estate isn't far behind.

The argument of blaming the capitalists for the failures of socialism goes back to the apologists for the Soviet Union. Repeated failure of the "5 year plans" were also repeatedly rationalized as due to the "weather". (Today it would be Globulwarming, which combines the weather with capitalism, putting the blame on private profit for destroying the ecosystem and the whole climate in a more elaborate variation on the same mentality.) I haven't followed the latest Venezuelan version enough to cite links to excuses, but wouldn't be surprised to find the same swill coming from the progressives.

I remember the Obama stooge planted in charge of GM and that the government endorsed and imposed the financial fraud. They also illegally looted the preferred stock holders for the benefit of the union.

Did anyone at GM speak out against the illegality of the theft bypassing the normal bankruptcy re-organization and legal allocation of assets?

They take the crabgrass of bad philosophical premises with them.

They are in office because they are voted into office. Without replacing the false premises of collectivism, altruism and statism that have spread across the country, changing the turnover rate will not reverse the trend.

For Obamacare in particular, everywhere you turn you see arguments appealing to the "needs" of those who want government funded and controlled health care. Almost no one defends the rights and freedom of the individual, least of all Republicans.

It's interesting how I just received this link from PragerU:

https://www.prageru.com/courses/econo...

The government is just trying to justify it's own existence and growth. The more regulations there are, the more government employees there will be to inspect and enforce them.

"Don't bother to examine a folly"
In defiance of Toohey's advice, I'm interested in learning more about the mechanics of this folly.

GM's head is the Cuffy Meigs of our time.

My landlord had my new lease all ready to go. We did some good old 5th grade arithmatic and suddely we realized something. Because of increased cost, rent, taxes, and a required new sign, our overheard was wayyy overhead. In order to squeeze out a profit we' need to leave a couple employees go. The result? We'd be working twice as hard and making half as much. While we loved our little business, it was time to pack it in.Copying H.G.Wells, it looked to us like "The Shape Of Things To Come."That was '89. Since then camera shops have virtually disappeared. Since the ability to open a store that wouldn't take 5 to 10 years before it showed a profit, unless you had big bucks to invest, you'd be a fool, when any number of investments would do better than that and without the physical labor.Add to that the more astute dealers looking into the immediate future and seeing the digital era just around the corner and poof, Mom and Pop will have to learn a new trade.Not exactly Venezuela, but we found that our predictions of the future paid off.We joined our son in the publishing business which is now also being pummeled by tech innovation.While I won't be around to see it, I think the death knell of the retail automobile business is starting to sound, followed by the death of all mortar and brick retail outlets.

The uninitiated that take over GM won't last much more than 5 years, and will fall victim to tech innovation, and the inability to sustain a profit. Especially with novices at the helm.

Yes, GM did support it. In fact, it was the quid pro quo for their union support. As part of that process, Obama put his own stooge in as GM's head, and then GM "supported" the swindle.

In 2009 my father showed me a letter from the Obama administration saying that they were offering $225 for the $100000 in GM bonds that my parents had, and that my parents had better accept it. If they decided to sue, then the government promised in the letter to counter-sue. The threat was not implied; it was explicit.

Any time one group of people is given power over another group corruption occurs. History proves this time and again. Only when very tight attention is paid to thise in control can any sort of honesty be expected. The problem with our government is that we allow them to pass the rules that they themselves must abide by and then to police themselves. Kind of like letting the inmates run the prison only I have no doubt that a prison would be better run with prisoners in charge than the present system. With the exception of the actual GUARDING of the prisoners of course.

Senators and Representatives set their own salaries. What kind of idiocy is that? Senators whine they can't make it on $174,000.00 a year yet begrudged SSI recipients a cost of living increase two years ago and for this year gave a whopping 0.4%. Now that's not a 4 cents on the dollar but 4/10ths of a cent on the dollar raise which came out to about $4.00 a month. $48.00 a year. My rent went up $150.00 a month last year. My health insurance premium, thanks to Obamacare just went from around $1500.00 to $2162.00 a month! And I can't afford to go with a lesser policy because my daughter had a brain tumor at age 5 and now nearing 20 she has all sorts of issues. She receives one injection each month that costs $8500.00 without insurance so I'm stuck. We spend so much time fighting the insurance company and Medicare just to get things approved and covered that clearly should be but for some reason got denied we sometimes have no time for living! But what do you do? They have the power, you vote for someone that you hope will change things but they get there and it's one against the established system and soon they're playing the same game.

I think we need to shorten the terms to two years for everyone but POTUS. And we need a quick and dirty way to yank people out of office if they aren't doing the will of the people. We need an independent organization in the House and Senate to police them, to make the rules they play by, and enforce them, with severe penalties if they don't. And once we the people have some control over DC maybe they'll do us right. Otherwise nothing will change.

I sold my specialty and exotic wood business in 2006, after 20 years of giving the government their fair share. They always get theirs even if you don't get any. It took me a little longer (20 years) to realize all those forms, regulations, and reporting requirements just take up too much time and money for such a specialty business. It's easier to just work for someone else, do a good job, and try to help them succeed. I lucked out however, being retired already from a large corporation, which made my own business more of a hobby than something I counted on for my survival or my future. I found my key to successful retirement was to save and invest every payday, benefitting from inflation and earnings on my savings. I think I still have some of the original money I earned from my paper route. Real Estate (inflation) has been extremely great for me too and it doesn't require a lot of conformance to accounting, reporting, and paperwork.

I haven't heard these arguments. Is there a link?

GM couldn't see this coming? Socialism is seizure.

You remind me of the people who moved from the Midwest to Arizona to get away from the allergens caused by grass, flowers, etc. and then proceeded to transform the landscape in Arizona to what they had fled. I suppose that is what happened in Oregon?

Yes