MOVIE: Atlas Shrugged Part One

[K Stadler]

I just finished watching the movie Atlas Shrugged Part One, and wow, does it ever get you thinking!  There is a battle between two sides, much like the battle that is becoming ever more present in our country today.

 

Side A:

Wants to keep things “fair,” no one side should have more of an advantage than another.  Everything should be micro-managed by the government, because much like a parent to a child, only they know what is best for you.

 

Side B:

Believes in innovation and reaping the rewards of your hard work.

 

The film concludes by asking the audience what happens when all the freedoms are gone.  The innovators will leave to seek the freedom to express their talents and creativity.  How will that society survive without the people who take charge, who invent, who dare to challenge, and who keep working for things they believe in?

 

True this is just a film, based on a book (I haven’t read yet), but it poses some interesting questions and put an interesting perspective on problems that are not that far out of the realm of possibility… I am on the edge of my seat to see how this unfolds (both in the film and in reality).

[Gerald Woodman]

I think what you are seeing is the fight with two extremes and that is what we are seeing and those in the middle are left out. Today, we face a crisis of globalization, some 57,000 factories have closed in a decade. No one has mentioned what will replace those jobs. You can work hard, but market forces you to lose. No one wants anything "fair." But you do have to have upward movement for all people from rich to poor and not just the rich. Past ideologies have failed us. The only way, for an upward movement is to invest in the country, in the people, and in the future. And we have not done this in two or three decades. The middle class is up against 2 billion cheap laborers since the fall of communism, also automation and more loss of jobs, six sigma and more loss of jobs, and mergers and consolidation and more loss of jobs. And no one is addressing it. 

You can lose your freedom from either the left or the right. Today, I see a fear of an Oligarchy or corporatism and the little guy is just losing. And again, no one is addressing our problems.