The legacy of Ayn Rand has been lost on Democrats

But the rugged individual lives on in Conservative values

In her epic volume, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand promotes the idea that society is built by prime movers who in turn are treated poorly by society. Without free markets and rugged individualists who build the major enterprises on which society depends, economies eventually collapse under the weight of government intervention in markets and over regulation of individual rights. The evidence is clear she was right notwithstanding the enduring controversy which followed publication of “Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged”.

Imagine the American economy today without the contributions of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk to name a few individuals who have created major enterprises largely free of government involvement or subsidy. Microsoft now employs about 180,000 people and has annual revenues approaching $200 billion. Apple employs over 160,000 people and has annual revenues of about $400 billion. Amazon employs 1,500,000 people and has annual revenues of close to $550 billion. Tesla employs 125,000 people and has annual revenues over $80 billion. Four companies created by the leadership and vision of four individuals now employ almost 2 million people and contribute $1.2 trillion to the global economy, largely in the United States.

They are not alone. There are literally dozens of major corporations in America that were created, led and built by individuals. Yet the United States government under Democrat rule vilifies, criticizes, over-regulates and diminishes the importance of these persons with key Democrats like Elizabeth Warren wanting to tax “billionaires” out of existence. The Democrats ability to strangle enterprising individuals came sharply into focus when in San Francisco, struggling with homelessness and drug abuse with addicts defecating on sidewalks, reacted to an individual willing to donate a well-designed public toilet to the city by imposing a regulatory burden that cost over $1 million and frustrated the donation, an example the subject of the latest Real Time episode of Bill Maher’s “New Rules: The Deep State”.

Maher points out that 24 million Americans work for the government and they spend every day interfering with the lives of others and expanding their bureaucracy. He made fun of the 18 year timeframe it took to get a proposed wind farm permitted in Wyoming.

This is America today and it is getting worse. Re-elect Joe Biden and it will become even more entrenched.

Thankfully, GOP leaders like Donald Trump, Ron de Santis and Vivek Ramaswamy promise to cut the size of the U.S. government bureaucracy by at least half. Let’s hope one of them becomes the next President. They stand for small government, lower taxes, less bureaucrats, and less government intervention into the lives of ordinary citizens trying to make their household budgets balance and build a business or two.