In Ayn Rand’s allegorical novel “Atlas Shrugged” the most productive members of society are vanishing. Their disappearance leaves a vacuum that is rapidly filled by people that have never operated a successful business, met a payroll, or even had a genuinely original idea. The result is the collapse of the economy and the beginnings of a depression that makes the 1930’s look like a tea party.

And now fiction is becoming reality. While there is no clearly identifiable “John Galt” and many of the people that are leaving the state are simply moving to more business friendly locations the impact on California is much the same as that described in Rand’s novel. Businesses are failing at an alarming rate, tax revenues are plummeting, and the burden placed on the state coffers by exploding welfare rolls is crippling. And California is not alone; this same scenario is being repeated all over the country.

In Atlas Shrugged, John Galt said he would “Stop the motor of the world.” Well, in the real world everywhere you look the motor is stopping.
California once led the nation in population growth at one point going over 6 percent per year. Now it has dropped to slightly over one percent. And what is worse is the drop in per capita income. Once a leader in the nation now the state is in the second to the lowest quintile in terms of income growth. This means that most of the growth is in lower income groups which mean little or no new business. This pattern is being repeated up and down the east coast. Not surprisingly the most rapid growth is in states with low or nonexistent tax structures, with Nevada being a prominent example.

For the most part the country is self destructing because of an orgy of self indulgence brought about by colossally incompetent social policies. The current administration is a classic example of machine politics Chicago style. The recent attempt at extortion or blackmail of Senator Kyle from Nevada is a classic example of this practice. Administration officials including four cabinet officers, almost certainly with the knowledge of President Obama, threatened the governor of Arizona with a cut off of stimulus funds if Kyle didn’t stop his criticism of the stimulus process.

The United States in now a debtor nation and is at the financial mercy of countries like China and other Asian nations as well as some very unfriendly folks in the Middle East. And now, even Communist China is viewing the leftward lunge of the United States with considerable alarm. They have a very large investment in American companies and American dollars and they are worried that this investment is in jeopardy. Considering the profligacy of the current and previous administrations this concern is clearly justified.



So, was Ayn Rand a prophet or just an annoying radical right wing kook. Watch the news or read it in those few papers that still exist and decide for your self.
Chuck Ivie

When you let the progressives run things, all they know is how run things down. Worse is they refuse to learn; Detroit today what city is next?

Starnsville for sure and more to come.

Hey, isn't that the "21st Century Motor Company"?

I think that your picture should be a poster for AS3. Or a t-shirt. Or both.

This image encapsulates both the decades-old theme of AS and the current "Now non-fiction" subtext. Frightfully well done. Brrrrr.

Jan
(I would buy the shirt!)

I was born and raised in Detroit. I was there during its most prosperous times and left the area when it was halfway through its total destruction. As a "youngster" in my early 30s, I bought a house in a close-in suburb and for the next 25 years watched the deterioration creep ever closer. When the porno palaces, the prostitutes, and the dope dealers infiltrated to within 2 miles of our home we started thinking about leaving. Eventually we left the state altogether. I have a hundred horror stories about "my city." It was a place I loved so I can also tell you what it was like growing up in the most prosperous of cities. Am I bitter? You damn well betcha!

Why doesn't Detroit tear down the Packard plant? That plant was built in 1903 and was the largest factory in US at the time.

Give it more time.

It is the poster child for Starnesville. A once rich city reduced to rubble. Too close to home. :(

Let 'er rip

I didn't know you were local. Where are you? I'm in Romeo area

I hope you get to see Joel Gilbert's There's No Place Like Utopia. In addition to covering Detroit as you do, he interviews the inhabitants.

Hey Detroiters, quick question for you... I'll be moving to Michigan soon, to the vicinity of the sister republic of Ann Arbor. How is the state doing as a whole? And do you see the welfare cancer spreading even further to that area? How about taxation, is it getting worse the take from the "rich" producers and give it to the poor?

Driving in and out of this city I have seen this building. Want to know what the Detroit Fed. looks like? Pristine.