Capitalists vs. the Government

Since the beginning of the novel Ayn Rand is able to display the constant battle between the capitalists and the government. The capitalists being Dagny and Rearden both have the same mentalities in which the economy should not be limited by the government, and the government being the science institute and Wesley Mouch, create all the limitations toward the railroad and metal production. I am in complete agreement with Hank and Dagny in which the government is not helping the economy by limiting the production of major enterprises of the nation. By doing so, they are spreading the wealth. Yes, they would be helping a few other companies to join or remain alive in the market, however, at the end, the economy does suffer from lack of efficiency in the production of output. Through the vacation taken by Hank and Dagny, the reader is able to witness what happened as a result of government limitations to factory towns around the nation, such as the poor, barely inhabited town next to Twentieth Century Motors. With more limitation of the government, more and more businesses will end up going out of business or have their leaders retire and close their business, such as Ellis Wyatt’s oil fields and several other companies that are no longer in circulation.

In addition to Hank’s view on government limitation, I also agree with his view that “one cannot feed his murders”. When he receives the order for tons of metal from the government, he carried out the right action in returning the order and not accepting it. The government has the power to shut down his business by all the laws it can enforce upon his economy, therefore, he does not believe in supporting the government with his product. I completely agree with him. Why would someone support his own enemy? Also it is funny how the government enforces laws to distribute evenly the amount of metal to each order and setting a maximum amount of metal for each buyer, when it actually asks for an order that do not follow those laws. The government feels like it has the power to do anything it wants, and that is what most people don’t support. It should leave the economy as a free market, without limitations and owned by private investors. The economy finds success if it is left untouched, as soon as government steps in, chaos breaks out.