Thursday, May 14, 2009

Contrasting view of innovation by producers vs. moochers/looters

If one of the big three auto companies developed a system or machine that would allow them to produce the same number of cars with half the cost, and half the labor required to build a car, and in less time; what would be the reaction?

Depending on your reaction one could probably tell whether you are a producer in society or a moocher/looter feeding off of society. Is your reaction to lament the loss of jobs created by this new technology or to praise the innovation, and see the possibilities of additional growth.

Below is a paragraph from the book Atlas Shrugged that illustrates a producers reaction to innovation. Dagny Taggart, one of the books main heroes, is viewing a motor that was invented that would revolutionize energy production. Observe her reaction, and see how it compares to your reaction to the example above.

"She thought of this structure, half the size of a boxcar, replacing the power plants of the country, the enormous conglomerations of structure, lifting ounces, pounds, tons of strain from the shoulders of those who would make it or use it, adding hours, days and years of liberated time to their lives, be it an extra moment to lift one's head from on task and glance at the sunlight, or an extra pack of cigarettes bought with the money saved from one's electric bill, or an hour cut from the work-day of every factory using power, or a month's journey through the whole, open width of the world, on a ticket paid for by one day of one's labor, on a train pulled by the power of this motor--with all the energy of that weight, that strain, that time replaced and paid for by the energy of a single mind who had known how to make connections of wire follow the connections of his thought. But she knew that there was no meaning in motors or factories or trains, that their only meaning was in man's enjoyment of his life, which they served--and that her swelling admiration at the sight of an achievement was for the man from whom it came, for the power and the radiant vision within him which had seen the earth as a place of enjoyment and had known that the work of achieving one's happiness was the purpose, the sanction and the meaning of life."

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