
Ayn Rand's works advocate individual rights and constitutionally-limited government, which is most likely why I love her books so much. Her style is (generally) very subtle, like in Atlas Shrugged she essentially shows what will happen when the government takes over everything, redistributing wealth, taking from those who work and giving to those who don't/won't but it's so eloquently done that it could just be a story to those who don't actually read in to what she's writing.
One of my favorite sections from The Fountainhead, however, is extremely straightforward but describes how I feel so well... it just speaks to me :-D
"'You said yesterday: 'What architect isn't interested in housing?' I hate the whole blasted idea of it. I think it's a worthy undertaking -- to provide a decent apartment for a man who earns fifteen dollars a week. But not at the expense of other men. Not if it raises the taxes, raises all the other rents and makes the man who earns forty live in a rat hole. That's what's happening in New York. Nobody can afford a modern apartment -- except the very rich and the paupers. Have you seen the converted brownstones in which the average self-supporting couple has to live? Have you seen their closet kitchens and their plumbing? They're forced to live like that -- because they're not incompetent enough. They make forty dollars a week and wouldn't be allowed into a housing project. But they're the ones who provide the money for the damn project. They pay the taxes. And the taxes raise their own rent. And they have to move from a converted brownstone into an unconverted one and from that into a railroad flat. I'd have no desire to penalize a man because he's worth only fifteen dollars a week. But I'll be damned if I can see why a man worth forty must be penalized -- and must be penalized in favor of the one who's less competent.'"
Amazing. I wish I could put my thoughts into words so well!
All possible thumbs up! :-D
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