Is that nitpicking? Democracy was exercised in Maine recently. But I don’t want to open the mob rule can of worms if it is not necessary to the discussion.

Just as banks over the last thirty years went to governments to keep them from going under after they made big bets and lost the money they earned. As long as there’s any sort of government in place, people will use it to push their interests. Thing is, we try to use governments as enforcers of law, order and fairness, so when people feel that they’re being gouged, they petition the government to do something about it.

Oddly enough, I find it interesting that the current crop of tea baggers and protesters are upset about taxes and their anger at banks who gambled their money away and who gouge them like there’s no tomorrow in ethically questionable fees, is a very, very distant second even though they lost much more to the latter than to the former.

“The theft of intellectual property, of literal property (ie, taxation) and so on…”

Taxation is the price we pay for living in a civilized, developed society. And we get a whole lot of services we couldn’t do without from our taxes, from roads to military protection against hostile foreign nations.

“… in this age of fiscal insanity- universal health care in a recession?”

Since there’s not going to be any universal healthcare, that’s kind of a moot point. Yes, we might have a public option but that would basically be extending Medicare to about 5% of the public. By the way, Medicare is used by tens of millions of people who are so happy with it, they want the government to stay out of it. Even though the government runs it…

“her anti-socialist / anti-democracy stance has never seemed more timely…”

Anti-democracy? So we don’t want to elect governments anymore? How timely is a cartoonish message against something we don’t have in the first place?

However, it strikes me that you missed a critical factor in Rand’s work. It was the public’s demand for GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION which led to the quoted speech.

Of course Rand’s protagonists needed willing customers, needed to work with their investors and maybe even answer to supervisors… But those same people went to their government to FORCE a better deal, a more “fair” distribution of wealth, etc. The theft of intellectual property, of literal property (ie, taxation) and so on led the protagonists of Atlas Shrugged to quit modern society and withdraw- at a massive cost to their own checkbooks and quality of life.

Unfortunately, Rand’s works seem to be gaining credulity in this age of fiscal insanity- universal health care in a recession??? *sigh* Truth is, her anti-socialist / anti-democracy stance has never seemed MORE timely…

Quibble: ‘rouse’ should be ‘ruse’, methinks…