A delightful little article in this week's Economist discusses a phenomenon obsessive Objectivists like me have already noticed: sales of Atlas Shrugged have been increasing steadily, spiking with each new government intervention. This month, Atlas climbed to 33rd on Amazon's bestseller list, briefly surpassing Obama's The Audacity of Hope. I suppose this is the one bright spot about the current crisis. Since we knew it would happen one day, at least this time the American people are armed with a moral defense of capitalism they lacked the last time the economy took a nosedive and a charismatic leader tried to shove a bunch of government programs and economic hurdles down their throats.
Now is an excellent opportunity to take advantage of the attention on Rand and Objectivism and write in to radio shows and newspapers, extolling the Objectivist perspective in your area of interest. I plan to submit a guest op-ed to Indiana's student paper next month.
In other book news, Rainelle and I went to the local library's used book sale yesterday, and in addition to copies of Friedman's There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch and P.J. O'Rourke's Eat the Rich, I found a good-condition, hardcover copy of George Reisman's epic economics tome, Capitalism, for $1. This book retails for $95. I cannot express how excited I am.
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