If Ayn Rand's fantasy comes true, where will you be at the moment of truth?

Operating the guillotines where the self proclaimed “ingenious and capable”, or more accurately called, the neo-aristocratic corporate slavemasters will end up.

Making the rails for the railroad.

Can we go up on the roof with a rifle and eliminate the moochers and the hangers on? I miss fiddle.

I’ve never read Atlas Shrugged so I don’t know what it’s about (other than what you’ve described).

Is there room in this world for a person who doesn’t say “f-you” to all the people that seem worthless?

In this world, could there be room for people that still need time to grow?

Arn’t we most delighted by the very last bloom of the season?

I work hard, so I do become frustrated with people who slack off. I think about the choices I make, I consider how my actions will effect my co-workers. It’s frustrating when others don’t.

I guess my answer is; I will be in purgatory. I’m not willing to be ”either__ / or”.

“We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for a while. For you must not forget that we can also build. It is we who built these palaces and cities, here in Spain and America and everywhere. We, the workers. We can build others to take their place. And better ones. We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing in this minute.” — Nestor Durrutti.

I’m going to be around laughing my ass off when the GOP’s exalted Creators find out just what’s involved in keeping sewers working, taking the garbage to the dump, picking tomatoes and all the other stuff the (again, according to current GOP rhetoric) lazy, useless takers, not makers do for the poor, impoverished billionaire elites.

I’ll be having a beer with @ETpro. We’ll laugh our asses off for a little while, watching CEOs and investment bankers shovel shit. Then we’ll get to work organizing the ‘moochers’. It really is ridiculous. To my mind, it’s more the very wealthy who are the moochers in our society. The poor have to work damn hard just to survive.

Correction: should be Buenaventura Durruti. I’m getting all my anarchists mixed up.

I can’t agree with your premise, “the fact that somebody suggests it means that it might happen someday.” Our imaginations can take us into many places and situations. Writing them down doesn’t mean they will come true.
Humanity becomes less human when they ignore the needs of others. When self- righteousness is considered more worthy than charity, we are headed in the wrong direction, as far as I’m concerned.

I choose to continue in my world of self-determination and happiness.

I’ll be where I am now; living in the jungle, not giving a fuck. :D

I would be the leader in either of these two sides.
Solving Problems

Well, the rich are the one’s who dream of this happening because they view themselves as the “ingenious and capable”, but would they really think they would avoid getting their heads on pikes when Academi (aka Xe, aka Blackwater) decides not to protect them anymore because they decide they are “ingenious and capable” too?

I’ll be in bed, fucking all the gorgeous/rich shallow gals…it’s a living.

This actually happened once. It wasn’t the very rich but a large group of the wealthy middle class “Creators” in England got on a boat, sailed west and created a place called Jamestown. They were used to servants doing all of their work for them, and the colony almost failed until John Smith instituted the “If you don’t work you don’t eat” policy (one “Creator” ate his wife). It took the charity of the local native americans to prevent the total collapse of the colony due to starvation.

I agree with @augustlan , the poor have to work very hard in order to survive. If Ayn Rand’s ‘vision’ ever actually happens, it will be the poor who will SURVIVE – because the wealthy have no idea of how much work it takes to survive.

I currently live in a society full of capable innovators and incredible ingenious creators. It is called Norway and is part of a larger social group called Scandinavia. We found oil and made the best of it… for EVERYONE. I am with the socially conscious. The lovers of humanity who understand that art and poetry and film and imagination comes from sources that cannot be defined by arbitrary economic standards. If you sit in such harsh judgement of your fellow man, be prepared to be judged. The knife cuts both ways. We do not have the black and white invented groups you speak of. They are invented. By feeble minded individuals who lack understanding and maturity. Read more. Travel more. You will appear less of a moron to the rest of us.

^^^ You are SO right. Ignorance is NOT bliss. It’s stultifying.

Norway hopefully @cazzie Got any openings over there?

@rojo I could say the same about many countries I have visited. France, New Zealand, England, The Netherlands…. I haven’t been there, but I hear great things about Germany, too.

Those are all socialist countries! OMG!

@rojo And those countries are doing so much worse with their systems than the usa is doing.

Anybody else think we should get our heads out of our asses and try something different? You know, like something working better for those socialist countries? Just sayin’.

@kitszu check your young, inexperienced facts. Just sayin’.

@cazzie She’s absolutely right. Perhaps it is you who should check facts rather than upir visceral feelings of innate superiority.

@ETpro How is she right? Stating ‘those countries are doing so much worse with their systems’ does not prove she is ‘absolutely right’. All you need to do is look up where the US stands on international standards lists of literacy, healthcare, infant mortality, education, homelessness, etc. The US is not the best of everything. I think @kitszu was the one with ‘the visceral feelings of innate superiority’

@ETpro @cazzie I think there’s some possible misinterpretation of what @kitszu said, and you probably both agree that those countries are doing better than the US by various standards.

I’ve actually no idea what @kitszu is trying to say. I can’t tell if it’s irony or ignorance. I also can’t parse the last sentence.

Regardless, none of the countries listed are actually socialist economies. New Zealand has gone more extreme than almost anywhere in the world in adopting neo-liberal policies, with the predictable fawning from Cato and the Heritage Foundation over how “free” they are—coupled with the predictable rise in inequality, unemployment and poverty.

Those countries are all definitively capitalist economies, varying by degrees of “market liberalization”, trade union influence, and social spending.

Different countries are pretty good at doing one or two things well. I’d pick Finland’s education system. France’s health care system. Denmark’s co-operative programmes. Norway’s and Sweden’s social security. Germany’s and Denmark’s trade unionism and their influence in industry and management.

No. No, I listen to talk radio here in the US and I can tell you “for a fact” that, since they have all have functioning health care, education and public assistance programs, THEY ARE SOCIALIST COUNTRIES.

And under the new and improved rules of internet conduct, because it is stated in all capitals, the above statement is an irrefutable fact and any so-called proof you could possibly offer otherwise is merely socialist propaganda.

Oh gosh… if @kitszu was using sarcasm, I sure wish she would have clarified. Sarcasm translates so poorly written down with no added annotation. A simple eye roll…. @@ or something like ”*read sarcasm” goes a long way to avoid misunderstandings.
Also, I think you are on to something…. @Kropotkin

The last comment posted by ETpro in this thread, seems to be diametrically inconsistent with many of the other views that he’s expressed at Fluther.

@cazzie It was clear to me by @kitszu suggesting that we in the US get our heads out of our asses that she was writing in sarcasm. I missed the fact that you didn’t realize that. Sorry.

@ETpro that is so right, when I read it again, but I took her meaning the other way around that the second part was sarcasm, but not the first. Just goes to show….