“Do you wish to know when that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by Compulsion -- when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing -- when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors -- when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you -- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming self-sacrifice -- you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.”

Follow the money ! After 1913, debt replaced money. The rest of the quote, as a stand alone statement, is an extremely terse list that explains the land of the free and, home of the brave's demise.

Very True. !!!!!!

Entirely too real. And exactly what we are seeing in the west today. It's kind of like watching a train wreck happen in slow motion with the progressives (parasites) cheering on...

Partial Lyrics from Bruce Cockburn's "Call it Democracy"
Felt like sharing it I guess...

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
Open for business like a cheap bordello

And they call it democracy

When you look at the criminals running (ruining) the country today, she was describing the situation exactly.

I started reading "Atlas Shrugged" in 1963 and have read it about ten times since. It has become my second bible. Only the "low information" voter doesn't understand what she was trying to warn us about.

I think we're there.

The problem with Rational Selfishness as a moral code is that it ends up serving as little more than a crutch for the exploitation of the poor by the rich as the status quo when the "rational" part rational selfishness is replaced by abject and unrestrained greed.

Richard, greed is a vice. One that is enshrined by our government and its corporate cronies and it steals from us all.

Collectivist oligarchy defined.

Richard, history answers a lot of your comment. When liberty's standard rang in the once land of the free and home of the brave, 'Rational Selfishness' was limited by law's practical application with the 'Free' becoming the richest, most giving / least poverty, most inventive, most caring, most . . . Once the statist theocracy imposed its anti-fiscal law and mandated wealth distribution, 'Rational Selfishness' became institutionalized. A return to natural law (not more socialist dogmas) is the greatest hope for freedom, prosperity, and all else that advances the noble being man.

If only Atlas Shrugged were required reading for every high schooler instead of the politically correct fecal " literature" they are force fed....what a different electorate we would have today. But today's generation of union propagandized socialistic educators from Kindergarten to college will have none of it. I have yet to meet one who has ever read it, let alone understand it, and I have yet to meet one educator who knows the origin of the minimum wage (racism in Georgia, 1909) the percentage of wages co - opted for Social Security, unemployment compensation, Disability, Medicaid, Workman Comp etc. We have an entire nation of economic ignoramuses, by design.
God help the United States of America.