It's no secret that the teabag movement and sundry other anti-health-care reform protesters claim the work of Ayn Rand, and specifically her novel Atlas Shrugged, to be the philosophical underpinning of their resistance. And it's not hard to determine where those officially charged with propagating Rand's ideas stand on the issue.
Which begs the question: would the highly paid CEOs of the health insurance companies that the Randians are defending qualify as the creative, productive champions of industry that Rand maintained were the fundamental pillars of society? They are neither patient nor doctor; they skim off the top of the transaction between patient and doctor. (And by skim I mean suck mercilessly like a huge mutant lamprey.) What, exactly do they contribute to the process? Just because you make a lot of money doesn't mean you're a creative, productive person. The world is rife with wealthy parasites.
Let me put it another way: in the novel, all the creative minds gradually abandon society, leaving it to fall apart on its own. Would any of us even notice if the CEOs of Cigna, Blue Cross, Aetna, et. al decamped for the wilds of Colorado to establish their own Utopia?
I wish they would all go to their mountain utopia. By the way someone already tried this, its called Salt Lake City and the Mormons are just now coming into the minority.
Posted by: Michael McEnroe | October 17, 2009 at 03:14 PM
After sitting through such a competent creep fest for an hour and a half,
Posted by: NFL shop | June 10, 2011 at 11:13 PM