It's baffling to think you could seriously believe that everyone (even anyone) who is poor enough to be on welfare actually enjoys their economic station in life, does not have any ambition of upward mobility, and has no intrinsic motivation.
Based on the productivity increases and stagnant wages of the last 30 years, working stiffs probably deserve a permanent vacation, but I assure you, they won't be getting it. As Frederick Douglass once said, "power concedes nothing without demand", and workers the world over have been demanding less and less of their employers over time.
Rand's bogeyman was government. A liberal's bogeyman is big business.
My bogeyman? Bigness. Not regulation, but simply big organizations that try to exert power & control over individuals. (How big is too big? Not sure, but here's a start: >1,000 individuals.) Some government regulation can actually combat this negative exertion of power (e.g. consumer protections, food labeling) whereas other regulations can make it worse (e.g. TSA, airport screenings).
I love small organizations. I think I love startups because they are small and most people start to dislike startups once they get big. The best big companies try to reorganize themselves to feel smaller.
I think Rand was a sycophant for corporate titans whom no serious startup entrepreneur should view as a role model, neither the titans nor the author herself.
As for the OP, I think the Randian connection is overstated. People who hate government tend to love Rand because it gives them a moral justification for hating the only institution society created for its self-benefit. The entrepreneur in question isn't some crusading Randian; he's just your everyday government hater who happens to have a library card.
Based on the productivity increases and stagnant wages of the last 30 years, working stiffs probably deserve a permanent vacation, but I assure you, they won't be getting it. As Frederick Douglass once said, "power concedes nothing without demand", and workers the world over have been demanding less and less of their employers over time.
Rand's bogeyman was government. A liberal's bogeyman is big business.
My bogeyman? Bigness. Not regulation, but simply big organizations that try to exert power & control over individuals. (How big is too big? Not sure, but here's a start: >1,000 individuals.) Some government regulation can actually combat this negative exertion of power (e.g. consumer protections, food labeling) whereas other regulations can make it worse (e.g. TSA, airport screenings).
I love small organizations. I think I love startups because they are small and most people start to dislike startups once they get big. The best big companies try to reorganize themselves to feel smaller.
I think Rand was a sycophant for corporate titans whom no serious startup entrepreneur should view as a role model, neither the titans nor the author herself.
As for the OP, I think the Randian connection is overstated. People who hate government tend to love Rand because it gives them a moral justification for hating the only institution society created for its self-benefit. The entrepreneur in question isn't some crusading Randian; he's just your everyday government hater who happens to have a library card.