A particularly colorful drama is the press conference in which Dagny and Hank boldly state their interest in profiting handsomely from the John Galt Line (p. 220). Dagny says railroads typically earn 2 percent on investment; a company should consider itself immoral, she says, to earn so little for providing so much. She expects to earn at least 15 percent, but she’ll try hard for 20 percent. The press is aghast. They invite her to amend her comments with altruistic justifications. She declines, saying it is too bad she does not own more Taggart stock, so she can make even more profit. Rearden informs the press that his metal costs far less to produce than they think, and that he expects “to skin the public to the tune of 25 percent in the next few years.” A reporter asks: “If it’s true, as I’ve read in your ads, that your Metal will last three times longer than any other metal and at half the price, wouldn’t the public be getting a bargain?” “Oh, have you noticed that?” answers Rearden (p. 220). (As here, Rand cleverly demonstrates throughout the novel that what is in one man’s rational self-interest is in the rational self-interest of others as well.) The role of selfish motive is further dramatized by the surface difference between Rearden and Francisco, both of whom are highly intelligent. Francisco asks Rearden why he spent ten years making his metal. To make money, Rearden answers. Francisco reminds him there are many easier ways to make money and asks why he chose the hardest. Rearden replies that Francisco himself had earlier given the answer: “in order to exchange my best effort for the best effort of others” (p. 421). Making the same point in negative form, Francisco tells Dagny, “They thought it was safe to ride on my brain, because they assumed that the goal of my journey was wealth. All their calculations rested on the premise that I wanted to make money. What if I didn’t?” (p. 117). Later, at Rearden’s house, Francisco asks, “Isn’t it generally agreed that an owner is a parasite and an exploiter, that it is the employees who do all the work and make the product possible? I did not exploit anyone. I did not burden the San Sebastian mines with my useless presence; I left them in the hands of the men who count”—men, Francisco had noted earlier, “who could not have achieved in a lifetime, the equivalent of what they got for one day’s work, which they could not do” (p. 137). These and other scenes show that intelligence is not sufficient for profit; a selfish motive is indispensable, too. —Richard M. Salsman Access the full essay via subscription (starting at $29/yr) or pdf ($3.95): https://theobjectivestandard/issues/2011-spring/atlas-shrugged-economics/
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 19:36:56 +0000
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