It has been a long while since I read Atlas Shrugged, but Galt was a liberator that freed a segment of the population. I took “Who is John Galt” to mean “Where is my freedom”. I might be completely hosing the Rand’s meaning, but Galt was no destroyer.
Starbuck is correct, a force of nature, our own nature, unleashed back on us and destroyed ourselves. This force was the false moral code of altruism. Legislating under the banner of altruism, productive companies were forced to subsidize inferior businesses. Subsidizing could mean higher taxes which paid subsidies provided to other businesses, extra regulation, labor laws, reducing quality/quantity of goods. The most insidious being higher costs to consumers and reduced innovation, thus by regulation, the government will decrease the standard of living. (Think about how many movie rentals you do NOT get to make when gas goes to $3.00 a gallon)
There are three types of people in the world: those who work for food, those who ask for food, and those that force others to provide for them. Altruism as a moral code provides the justification for the third and most vile class. In any free society, it would be very difficult and dangerous for a competitor to force another competitor into concessions. These morally corrupt businesses found they could use the State as their enforcer.
I’ve often quibbled if the Horse and Buggy United Workers and the Horse Shit Shovelers Union were around at the time the car, do you think we would all be driving cars now? Think of all the workers that would lose their job! It takes 1,000’s of hours of training for a man to steer a carriage, we can’t trust people to transport themselves. Think of the danger to the streets; it would be bedlam and people would drive on the sidewalks and crush…etc. Think it’s not possible? Today, in New Jersey it is against the law to pump your own gas!
It is the thinkers and the producers that enable our world to have a constantly increasing standard of living. Galt sought those people and encouraged them to claim their freedom from altruistic slavery. If you define a system to me that one man would have up to 50% of his rewards from his effort were taken and given to a minority of people, I might not agree that it is slavery. Then you tell me if he resists the thievery, he will be shot. That is a form of slavery.