Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
also, not a book but very good "The last question" Isaac Asimov [1]
also, not a book but very good "The last question" Isaac Asimov [1]
How would that behaviour be rationalised from Foutainhead?
NOTE1: spoiler alert.
NOTE2: please don't think of me as some heartless Objectivist - I have adjusted my views since I read it about 10 years ago but at the time, the following points were earth-shaking revelations to me:
* It revealed to me how influence peddlers in society use a combination of coercion and guilt to suppress an individual's individuality
* It revealed that these "thugs" are interested in suppressing your thoughts and controlling your money. I read this book during the Bush years and the suppression of speech in the name of "patriotism" rang true, while prior regimes' punitive taxation policies also rang true as meeting Rand's definition of thugs.
* She basically posits that an individual's greatest purpose of existence is to create and to do the best for themselves that they can.
Within the above kernels, which with moderation I feel are very powerful insights, are interspersed a lot of distractions. Her writing style is retch-inducing and her hatred of native people in continents that were abused by colonialism is bafflingly naive. My edition of the book had about 1100 pages, 100 or so of which were Galt's long speech - it was an endeavor to finish this book but I am happy to have learnt the above insights.
It did so by presenting a fictional instance of unjust economic laws. At least I read it as pure fiction - whether such unjust laws actually exist anywhere in the world is, I think, best treated as a completely separate question.
It gave me a new respect for entrepreneurs.