With what is going on with the United States government today, it seems that Ayn Rand may be particularly spot on with what goes on when a government oversteps its boundaries; chaos. I cannot help but picture a board room full of overweight, pompous men, much like the famed cartoons of the big wig business executives and politicians in the 1920s, when new government directives are discussed lead by people like Wesley Mouch and Jim Taggart. It absolutely astounds me that Jim Taggart, a man of business would be okay with the fact that the directives will merely destroy his company. Government regulations prohibiting people from retiring or being let go is so incomprehensible to me living now in the United States. Much like in Atlas Shrugged, today’s government seems to have, over the last several decades, digressed from the  small, less-powerful government as originally executed in the late 1700s. I can only compare what has happened in this book, a mirror image as what seems to be happening in today’s society, to a kid in a candy store. Once the child has a taste of candy, or in this case power, it wants more and more. Long gone are the days when the United States was viewed as a political entity that was controlled by the people, for the people. Instead, the government currently in play today seems to be for the government, by the government. The difference between an ordinary person and a governmental body (or those who represent it) essentially boils down to power and privilege. Obviously, a normal citizen hasn’t the sheer power that a government has. A normal person cannot issue directives or make a real difference in government, other than voting, if that even counts anymore. The leaders of the government of the United States, both in Atlas Shrugged and in the real-world, have become so entangled in their rules and regulations that they seem to have completely forgotten that they have anybody but themselves to answer to. The sad reality is that it’s true. There are very few people that understand what is actually going on in the government enough to say this isn’t right, and the people that do understand it, aren’t powerful enough to make a real difference. It is truly disheartening to see a country that was founded upon the principles of a republican democracy transform itself into a country run by a government that, upon failure upon failure, continue to ask more from its citizenry for future failures. Both the government in this book as well as the current government plaguing our nation have clearly overstepped their boundaries in all senses leading to an economic and social epidemic that will take decades upon decades, if ever, to fix.