The fictional Galt is a brilliant, highly successful entrepreneur who leads a revolt of the underappreciated and overtaxed titans of industry. To pull the plug on an increasingly socialist society, Galt and his peers in the top 1% cease their own productive endeavors and bring the world economy to its knees. We would have been in better shape if they had played hookie to play golf with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. To the libertarian-minded, the poor and working class people who are mired in economic stagnation have only themselves to blame. But we would also be in serious trouble if migrant workers stopped harvesting our food and if construction workers stopped building our roads and bridges and if engineers stopped designing our machines and if the legion of underpaid and underappreciated working people simply stayed home.

Source: Los Angeles Times September 22, 2017 12:00 UTC