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Here’s a golden oldie, from back in the day when industry associations stood up for capitalism and the positive social by-products of productive enterprises, instead of apologizing for their existence and bending over backwards to appease environmentalist bullies, corrupt incumbents, and union thugs.

While it veers into the de rigeur hip-deep patriotic cheese near the end (around 9:50, when Gramps Robinson stands up), the rest of the film is surprisingly good and refreshingly accurate. As I’m in the middle of reading Atlas Shrugged, I was struck by how the town in question is the mirror image of Starnesville: a place where the “motive power” of local industry was recognized, respected, and celebrated.

Another interesting element of this film is how toned-down the utilitarian justifications for capitalism are. Sure enough, capitalism is defended to some degree on the basis of its public benefits, but the public benefits are more overtly presented as the natural, emergent effects of the spontaneous organization sparked by Mr. Manson’s initial investment. Gramps Robinson even gets in a dig at the now all-too-familiar “Progressive” mindset which evades the real sources of prosperity, thinking it can tear down industry and still have the prosperity of which productive enterprise is the root.

Pretty sophisticated for an educational film aimed at young teenagers.

[cross-posted at People's Press Collective]

More here: “We needed Mr. Brown’s weenies! That’s the incentive that makes capitalism work!”

Posted on April 24th, 2009 under Economics. Tags: Atlas Shrugged, capitalism, Economics, emergence, free markets, industry, moonbats, progressives. Comments Off

Compare this:

A few houses still stood within the skeleton of what had once been an industrial town. Everything that could move, had moved away;  but some human beings had remained. The empty structures were vertical rubble; they had been eaten, not by time, but by men: boards torn out at random, missing patches of roofs, holes left in gutted cellars. It looked as if blind hands  had seized whatever fitted the need of the moment, with no concept of remaining in existence the next morning. The inhabited houses were scattered at random among the ruins; the smoke of their chimneys was the only movement visible in town.  — Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

With this description of the re-wilding of present day Detroit:

His little Cape Cod is an urban Appalachia of coon dogs and funny smells. The interior paint has the faded sepia tones of an old man’s teeth; the wallpaper is as flaky and dry as an old woman’s hand.

Beasley peers out his living room window. A sushi cooking show plays on the television. The neighborhood outside is a wreck of ruined houses and weedy lots…

“This city is going back to the wild,” he says. “That’s bad for people but that’s good for me. I can catch wild rabbit and pheasant and coon in my backyard.”

Detroit was once home to nearly 2 million people but has shrunk to a population of perhaps less than 900,000. It is estimated that a city the size of San Francisco could fit neatly within its empty lots. As nature abhors a vacuum, wildlife has moved in.

A beaver was spotted recently in the Detroit River. Wild fox skulk the 15th hole at the Palmer Park golf course. There is bald eagle, hawk and falcon that roam the city skies. Wild Turkeys roam the grasses. A coyote was snared two years ago roaming the Federal Court House downtown.

And throw in these photoessays from the ruins of the city’s once-thriving downtown for illustration – lots more links at BoingBoing. I disagree emphatically with the BoingBoing commenter who claims that this is the result of ‘hypercapitalism having its vampiric way’ – it was capitalism which built all of these now-ruined buildings and the now-decaying wastelands of Detroit. The ruination came in degrees as Detroit’s industrial giants were increasingly hamstrung by unions and Detroit’s government increasingly fell victim to corruption and identity politics – if there were any vampires preying on “The Twentieth-Century Motor City”, they were from the union hall and the city hall.

Posted on April 3rd, 2009 under Economics, Luddism, PPC. Tags: Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, capitalism, corruption, Detroit, re-wilding, Starnesville, urban decay. Comments Off

Meet Namaste Solar Electric, aka “The Twentieth Century Solar Panel Company”:

“We did have a lot of skeptical, raised eyebrows at the beginning,” Jones said of his company, which installs solar power systems in Colorado.

“We even have had business schools bring teams of MBA students to come to do a case study,” he said. [but of course: it helps to study failures in order to avoid them in the future - ed.]

Outsiders were baffled by some of these company plans:

• Environmental concerns would be a driving force in every aspect of the company.
• Six weeks of paid time off.
• A concept called FOH — frank, open and honest — to help eliminate gossip and grudges.
• Employees, no matter what their job description, have the same pay scale.
• One percent of yearly revenues goes to solar systems donated to community groups.
• All major decisions would be made by consensus of all company employees.

That is so close to the work environment that spurred John Galt to “stop the motor of the world” in Atlas Shrugged that it reads like a parody.

“It was…something that happened at that first meeting at the Twentieth Century factory.   Maybe that was the start of it, maybe not.  I don’t know…The meeting was held on a spring night, twelve years ago.  The six thousand of us were

Namaste is in the process of remodeling a 15,000-square-foot warehouse for its offices.

And it is doing it to the highest of green building standards, the LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. That involves everything from the use of natural light to the recycling of building materials to the access to the building by public transportation.

And yes, all the building’s electricity will be provided by a solar system Namaste installs. Most of the panels will be on the roof, but there will also be a solar awning.

One wonders if there will be impressive etched glass doors in the executive washroom, and an exclusively-soybean menu in the company cafeteria.

[via Michelle Malkin]

ADDENDUM: Looks like the snivelers at Media Matters don’t much care for the company being called “socialist” by Glenn Beck.  If they think that socialism is such a dirty word, maybe they should stop running interference for people who support it.

Also, David Corn – in between schoolgirl gushings about the unparallelled stupendicality of the Obamessiah – provides a little more info about the “alternativity” of Namaste’s business model.

Posted on February 20th, 2009 under Entertainment, Luddism. Tags: Atlas Shrugged, Boulder, moonbats, solar. Comments Off