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POV: What Is Capitalism?
by Ayn Rand | November-December 1965
In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance
by Yaron Brook | September 30, 2017
Inequality Doesn't Matter If We’re All Paid According to the Value We Create
by Don Watkins | October 18, 2016
Who Cares about Inequality?
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Equal Is Unfair: America’s Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality
by Don Watkins | April 19, 2016
Economic Inequality Complaints Are Just A Cover For Anti-Rich Prejudice
by Don Watkins | April 14, 2016
Equality of Opportunity Doesn’t Exist in America — and That’s a Good Thing
by Don Watkins | April 06, 2016
Inherit The Wind . . . And Not Much Else
by Don Watkins | April 05, 2016
Equal is Unfair: America’s Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality
by Don Watkins | October 20, 2015
Religion in America
by The Editors | December 05, 2014
Religion vs. Freedom
by Onkar Ghate | December 03, 2014
Debate: “Inequality: Should We Care?”
by Yaron Brook | May 08, 2014
Economic Inequality: Who Cares?
by The Editors | March 25, 2014
Our Poverty Problem?
by Don Watkins | March 11, 2014
Is Inequality Fair?
by Yaron Brook | March 05, 2014
Government tries to do too much: Opposing view
by Don Watkins | January 26, 2014
“You didn’t build that,” conservative style
by Steve Simpson | December 09, 2013
Why Do 1.4 Million Americans Work At Walmart, With Many More Trying To?
by Doug Altner | November 27, 2013
Atlas Shrugged Is A Book About Pride In One’s Work, And The Success That Results
by Steve Simpson | November 08, 2013
Bernie Madoff, Steve Jobs, and Wall Street Greed
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Justice Department should let US Airways & American Airlines merger proceed
by Tom Bowden | August 16, 2013
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by Tom Bowden | April 18, 2013
To Be Born Poor Doesn’t Mean You’ll Always Be Poor
by Yaron Brook | April 12, 2013
We Should Be Embarrassed by the Sequester Debate
by Yaron Brook | March 20, 2013
“Give Back” Is One of the World's Most Impoverishing Commands
by Yaron Brook | March 12, 2013
Capitalism in No Way Created Poverty, It Inherited It
by Yaron Brook | February 25, 2013
3 crucial lessons Ayn Rand can teach us today
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Capitalism without Guilt
by Yaron Brook | January 21, 2013
President Obama Duels With Ayn Rand Over What Makes America Great
by Don Watkins | October 29, 2012
Why Ayn Rand’s Absence From Last Thursday’s Debate Benefits Big Government
by Yaron Brook | October 15, 2012
The Virtue of Employee Layoffs
by Yaron Brook | September 06, 2012
Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged: A Paean to American Liberty
by Don Watkins | August 17, 2012
President Obama vs. My Grandfather
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The Dog-Eat-Dog Welfare State Is Lose-Lose
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Changing the Debate: How to Move from an Entitlement State to a Free Market
by Don Watkins | July 02, 2012
Private Equity Firms Want Acquisitions To Profit, Not Fold
by Doug Altner | June 05, 2012
Opposing view: Celebrate private equity
by Don Watkins | May 29, 2012
The “On Your Own” Economy
by Don Watkins | March 09, 2012
What's Really Wrong with Entitlements
by Don Watkins | February 21, 2012
Happy Birthday, Ayn Rand — Why Are You Still So Misunderstood?
by Don Watkins | February 02, 2012
America Before The Entitlement State
by Don Watkins | November 18, 2011
How Did Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged Predict an America Spinning Out of Control?
by Onkar Ghate | October 31, 2011
What We Owe Steve Jobs
by Don Watkins | October 06, 2011
What’s Missing From The Budget Debate
by Don Watkins | July 12, 2011
Does America Need Ayn Rand or Jesus?
by Onkar Ghate | June 29, 2011
When It Comes to Wealth Creation, There Is No Pie
by Yaron Brook | June 14, 2011
It’s Time To Kill The “Robin Hood” Myth
by Yaron Brook | May 06, 2011
Using Ayn Rand's Values to Create Competitive Advantage in Business
by John Allison | April 04, 2011
In Defense of Finance
by Yaron Brook | February 15, 2011
The Tea Party Will Fail — Unless it Fully Embraces Individualism as a Moral Ideal
by Tom Bowden | January 21, 2011
How About Tax Reparations for the Rich?
by Don Watkins | January 18, 2011
The Guilt Pledge
by Don Watkins | September 22, 2010
How To Succeed In Business: Really Try
by Don Watkins | September 13, 2010
The U.S. Anti-Business Epidemic
by Don Watkins | August 17, 2010
Atlas Shrugged’s Timeless Moral: Profit-Making Is Virtue, Not Vice
by Yaron Brook | July 20, 2010
Capitalism: Who Needs It — Ayn Rand and the American System
by Yaron Brook | June 09, 2010
Apple vs. GM: Ayn Rand Knew the Difference. Do You?
by Don Watkins | March 02, 2010
Commercialism Only Adds to Joy of the Holidays
by Onkar Ghate | December 18, 2009
Why is Ayn Rand Still Relevant: Atlas Shrugged and Today’s World
by Yaron Brook | August 10, 2009
The Corrupt Critics of CEO Pay
by Yaron Brook | May 2009
America’s Unfree Market
by Yaron Brook | May 2009
Energy at the Speed of Thought: The Original Alternative Energy Market
by Alex Epstein | Summer 2009
Is Rand Relevant?
by Yaron Brook | March 14, 2009
Stop Blaming Capitalism for Government Failures
by Yaron Brook | November 13, 2008
From Flat World To Free World
by Yaron Brook | June 26, 2008
Vindicating Capitalism: The Real History of the Standard Oil Company
by Alex Epstein | Summer 2008
The Right Vision Of Health Care
by Yaron Brook | January 08, 2008
Deep-Six the Law of the Sea
by Tom Bowden | November 20, 2007
The Influence of Atlas Shrugged
by Yaron Brook | October 09, 2007
The Morality of Moneylending: A Short History
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Say “No Way!” to “Say on Pay”
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Atlas Shrugged — America's Second Declaration of Independence
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Religion and Morality
by Onkar Ghate | October 18, 2006
Net Neutrality vs. Internet Freedom
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Why Are CEOs Paid So Much?
by Elan Journo | May 11, 2006
To Outsource or to Stagnate?
by Onkar Ghate | August 01, 2004
Ayn Rand's Ideas — An Introduction
by Onkar Ghate | June 02, 2003
Capitalists vs. Crooks
by Elan Journo | July 22, 2002
Forgotten Heroes of 9/11
by Onkar Ghate | May 17, 2002
Religion vs. America
by Leonard Peikoff | 1986
The Sanction of the Victims
by Ayn Rand | November 21, 1981
Egalitarianism and Inflation
by Ayn Rand | 1974
The Moratorium on Brains
by Ayn Rand | November 14, 1971
What Is Capitalism?
by Ayn Rand | November 19, 1967
Is Atlas Shrugging?
by Ayn Rand | April 19, 1964
The Fascist New Frontier
by Ayn Rand | December 16, 1962
America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business
by Ayn Rand | December 17, 1961
The “New Intellectual”
by Ayn Rand | May 15, 1961
Capitalism vs. Communism
by Ayn Rand | 1961

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Atlas Shrugged Is A Book About Pride In One’s Work, And The Success That Results

by Steve Simpson | November 08, 2013 | Forbes.com

Do fishermen enjoy Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea? Do generals like Tolstoy’s War and Peace? I have no idea, but I’m reasonably sure no one looks to these novels for advice on how to catch fish or wage war. The purpose of a novel is not to provide concrete advice on particular tasks, but to present a vision of man and his place in the universe.

In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand presents a vision of man that is unlike anything ever written. Rand’s ideal man is the visionary, the genius, the producer. Her foremost representatives of this ideal are businessmen, whom she portrays, at their best, as heroes, not villains; creators, not parasites.

Rand’s vision has inspired successful people from all walks of life for generations. They love the book, not because it tells them how to make better yoga clothing or run a better taxi service, but because it offers profound insights about the principles that lead to success (or failure) in any field, and it shows those principles playing out in the lives of the novel’s characters.

Atlas Shrugged Is A Book About Pride In One's Work, And The Success That Results

The book has been criticized often in the five decades since it was published. Most frustrating for those of us who love it are critiques that misunderstand its essential points and end up attacking straw men. Rand, they often say, believed that only the strong should survive or that a man’s worth is measured by the size of his wallet. Writing in the Business Insider, Max Nisen does all this but adds a new twist. In “‘Atlas Shrugged’ is Full of Terrible Business Advice,” Nisen criticizes the book for not being a better version of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Of course, Atlas Shrugged isn’t a business how-to manual. But it is full of powerful advice if you’re willing to consider what Rand actually says. Here are some of the real lessons in the novel that make it a favorite of so many productive, successful people.

Take pride in your success.

Like so many critics of Atlas Shrugged, Nisen claims Rand conveyed that successful people are inherently superior to everyone else. But anyone who has read the novel knows it is filled with noble characters who achieve only modest financial success. Eddie Willers, friend and ally to railway magnate Dagny Taggart; Gwen Ives, industrialist Hank Rearden’s superlative secretary; Cherryl Brooks, the store clerk who tragically marries a villain thinking he is a hero; Jeff Allen, the proud tramp who stows away on a Taggart train and is hired by Dagny; even a young bureaucrat who is assigned to monitor Rearden Steel and ends up becoming Rearden’s ally. The heroes in the novel don’t look down on these characters. They treat them as friends and allies. Clearly, Rand recognizes that moral character stems from the choices people make, not their wealth or status.

So Rand doesn’t condemn anyone for failing to become rich and successful. But she does condemn those who despise others because they are rich and successful. The “hallmark of the second-rater,” she has one of her characters say, “is resentment of another man’s achievement.” She spends much of the novel showing just how resentment of achievement — which she called hatred of the good for being the good — is destroying society.

Was she right? Well, President Obama thinks that “you didn’t build that.” We hear every day that we should despise and tax the “1%” because they are wealthy. Evidence of the resentment of success is all around us. Ayn Rand saw that in 1957, when Atlas Shrugged was published. And she knew that this attitude could prevail only if the successful allowed it to, by feeling guilty for their achievements. Rand’s response was clear: take pride in any success you’ve earned and never apologize for it.

Pursue your own happiness and achieve it.

Another common criticism of Atlas Shrugged, which Nisen repeats, is that its characters are motivated by money alone. This is an odd claim about a novel that is filled with characters who love their work and continually strive to achieve more and more, often at great short-term cost. Hank Rearden spends ten years developing a new alloy. Dagny leaves a secure position at Taggart Transcontinental and works around the clock to develop a new railroad, the John Galt line. Is money important to these characters? Yes, of course, but making money is not their primary motive. Money, as Rand recognizes, is not an end in itself, but only a means. The end — the purpose of all that hard work — is achieving happiness. And Rand believes that is possible. As her protagonist, John Galt, says, “The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it’s yours.”

Money is the product of virtue.

Speaking of money, critics also often misunderstand Ayn Rand’s view of it. In the novel, she gives that explanation to copper magnate Francisco d’Anconia, who answers the claim that money is the root of all evil. Nisen picks out one paragraph where d’Anconia says gold is an objective form of money because, unlike paper, it cannot be manipulated by government. Nisen cites a couple of articles that supposedly show the gold standard is bad, not good. They even have graphs. And he recommends that readers watch a video of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke saying the same thing.

Certainly, if you are interested in all the debates about the gold standard, you can watch the government’s chief money manipulator respond to the view that he shouldn’t manipulate the money supply. After that, you might read the hundreds of books and articles on monetary policy from the last eight decades or so. Ayn Rand doesn’t try to address all of that in Atlas Shrugged. There are no graphs in the novel.

Instead, Rand focuses on fundamental questions about money, just as she focuses on fundamental questions on every issue. She asks: what is money and what role does it play in our lives? She argues that it isn’t the root of all evil, but the product of all the hard work and thought that sustains us. Money, as Rand says, “is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men.” If you value your mind, your work, and your life, Rand holds, then you will value money. And if government can control and devalue our money, then government can control and devalue our lives.

When have you ever heard an economist say that?

Trade is a virtue, but sacrifice is not.

Nisen says that the businessmen in Atlas Shrugged have contempt for their customers because in one scene, Hank Rearden says he would rather destroy his metal than sell it to anyone who demands that he produce it for them as his duty. But Rand’s point is that there is a big difference between trade, which is a virtue, and sacrifice, which is a vice. In fact, the heroes in the novel treat their real customers — those who want to trade with them, rather than take from them — with great respect. Rearden, for example, spends much of the novel figuring out how to produce enough of his metal to satisfy customers who are becoming more and more desperate for it as the economy collapses. But one of the primary points of the novel is that no one should work for their own destruction. Today, we see calls for businessmen to sacrifice more and more every day. Is that good business advice?

Government is a necessary good.

Finally, Rand does not treat government as a “pure antagonist” as Nisen and other critics claim, but as an essential institution that protects the rights on which individuals and businesses depend every day. Of course, Rand does illustrate the evil of a government that becomes a violator rather than a protector of rights. If you think she is wrong, look around. Is our ever-expanding government really the solution to what ails us today, or the problem?

The bottom line is that Atlas Shrugged isn’t an economics text or a business how-to manual, it’s a brilliant novel of ideas that challenges conventional thinking on every major issue in life — not just money, but work, family, politics, and even sex. It does contain great advice, just not the sort of advice that critics like Nisen prefer.

But if you want to see that, my advice is to go read it yourself.

About The Author

Steve Simpson

Former Director of Legal Studies (2013-2018), Ayn Rand Institute