More on how Ayn Rand is st00pid

Via Brad DeLong, Hilzoy reports on the strange new conservative obsession with Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged. Supposedly, America's entrepreneurial class is threatening to "go Galt" - i.e. go on strike because of high taxes, just as John Galt does in the book Atlas Shrugged.

Now, I've never read Atlas Shrugged, because to be perfectly frank it seems like a boring POS. And I know that the premise of the book - what would happen if all the entrereneurs quit and went off to live in a libertarian utopia? - is st00pid, i.e. shows a basic lack of understanding of economics. First of all, without employees to sweep the floors and man the assembly lines, entrpreneurs are either going to have to do all the grunt-work themselves (wasting their time) or their businesses ain't gonna get very far. Also, the fiction that public goods like roads can be efficiently provided by the private sector (toll roads, etc.) is, well, a fiction. And what's to prevent the entrepreneurs from stealing each other's ideas? It's easier than inventing your own ideas, and entrepreneurs are nothing if not opportunistic. For intellectual property you need a government, lawyers, police, etc.

Those are just some of the reasons why a libertarian utopia would actually be a very poverty-stricken place, even if it was populated entirely by genius entrepreneur heroes.

But in any case, as Hilzoy points out, America's business class has absolutely no intention of "going Galt." First of all, what would the busines class gain by going on strike? A lot of leisure time. And let me tell you, the business class is rich enough that if they wanted a lot of leisure time, they'd be taking it already. Second of all, do Michelle Malkin and co. really expect us to believe that a 39% top marginal tax rate - the rate we had in the 1990s - is going to be sufficient to make entrepreneurs just up and quit? How stupid does she think we are?

As stupid as Ayn Rand, apparently.

Update: Turns out both of the conservative bloggers who started the "going Galt" meme have government jobs!! Mwahahahahaha...