Ayn Rand describes how wealth creation comes from man's mind not government edict, stimulus packages or bailouts. Government has the power to destroy that which is good-we as Americans must never forget this, more so now that we see our economy tanking because of government meddling. As we move ever closer to socialism (government control of the economy and our lives) let's learn the lesson once and for all: In order to survive man must create values or he dies. When government intervenes and takes that which one has produced then survival becomes increasingly difficult in proportion to the interference of government. Surely the Berlin Wall and it's eventual fall showed this clearly to the world. The government's proper role was defined by our forefathers and proven by Ayn Rand in her numerous writings. In the following quote she describes what caused the Industrial Revolution.
If you want to prove to yourself the power of ideas...the intellectual history of the nineteenth century would be a good example to study. The greatest, unprecedented, undreamed of events and achievements were taking place before men's eyes...I am speaking of the industrial revolution, of the United States and of capitalism...The creative energy, the abundance the wealth, the rising standard of living for every level of the population were such that nineteenth century looks like a fiction-Utopia...If life on earth is one's standard of value, then the nineteenth century moved mankind forward more than all the other centuries combined.
Did anyone appreciate it? Does anyone appreciate it now? Has anyone identified the causes of that historical miracle? (Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World in Philosophy Who Needs It?)
Andrew Bernstein writes in The Capitalist Manifesto: (page 157 in the chapter titled: The Mind as Man's Instrument of Survival).
That period's commitment to the practical efficacy of reason was a foundational principle of the new republic, one that to the present day informs numerous American institutions. The more obviously practical an endeavor, the more vociferously enthusiastic was American support. For example, although the Humanities always flourished in the new country in the creation of a superb national body of literature and other forms, it was in the fields of theoretical and applied science, technology and industry that the American genius achieved its full flowering. The Americans recognized the practical value of applied science in the way the Greeks recognized philosophy. The American commitment to the material improvement of human life by means of applied mind power has never been equalled by any other civilization. It is one key to understanding the unprecedented standard of living reached in the United States.
The other, related key is political-economic freedom. A cultural commitment to applied thought obviously necessitates an equal commitment to the freedom of the thinkers applying their thought. America's pioneering minds were free to conceive new ideas, to experiment and invent, to develop new products and methods, to start their own companies, to bring their new products to the marketplace, to convince the customers that the new ways were superior to the old, and to make a fortune. It was the freedom of the 19th century American society that enabled it to become a seething hotbed of revolutionary ideas and products, all leading toward higher living standards and increased success and happiness for countless millions of human beings.
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