[Jay42]

I started to read Atlas Shrugged once, but fell asleep in the tangents of railroads and the love story that was tossed in for good measure.

As I foggily remember, Ayn Rand was pushing a concept of utilitarianism. Some libertarians say that her book is their Bible.

I understand very little. But what I think she's saying is that we need to cut off all government assistance to the poor (and everyone else) , and get every citizen to 'pull themselves up by their own bootstraps' and let unbridled capitalism reign.

It's sort of the ultimate in rugged individualism, to the right of any republican position.

It was dramatized in, oddly enough, the children's cartoon Arthur, when the rich could start buying up the roads and charging people money to drive down their formerly-public streets.

Who can expound on this?

[Jeff]

If only it were possible. At this scale, our economy would destroy itself completely in a very short amount of time. Remember that since the great depression, our wealth has sustained artificially through government action and war. Without the stool, we'd immediately have to suffer the collapse we've been prolonging for nearly the past century. Other powers would be quick to capitalize on the opportunity to impose their own order on us, which would bring us back out of that rugged individualistic state.