Ryan's Medicare Prescription and Ayn Rand

Ryan’s Medicare Prescription and Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand’s 1000 page tome is about to be released as a movie.  Make no mistake “Atlas Shrugged” is a Religious Manifesto.  In Atlas Shrugged, Rand established the Doctrine, made herself the godhead, and Atlas Shrugged became the Randian bible.   All citizens of the of the United States should be concerned about the release of this movie and the Disciples of Ayn Rand who are striving to take your government and remake it into their interpretation of her vision.  Current power brokers like Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, the Pauls, and the recent gang of  four Republican Govenor’s, are all religious adherents of the Randian doctrine.  Mr. Cantor has listed Atlas Shrugged as required reading for his staff.

To understand Rand’s writing you must know that she and her Bourgeoisie (social class of people with capital) family were persecuted by the Bolsheviks during the 1917 communist revolution.  Socialism to her meant life lived in the fear of a Kafkaesque novel.  Rand’s (AKA, Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum)  family money and property was seized and they fled mother Russia.  That was a traumatic experience for a young girl. 

Her response to the tyranny of the Bolsheviks was to create her own tyranny of mind, Objectivism.  Randian Objectivism relies on her version of rational thought as an ethical compass, and holds that; (1) Producers make what they consume; (2) Looters live off of the initiative and industry of the Producers (3) Producers must take the initiative to put themselves in a position to control what they produce, so that others cannot consume it.  If you are not a Producer you are a Looter and should have nothing to consume.

In Rand’s mother Russia the Producers would have been the Royalty and those like her family the capitalist elite, the Looters would have been the working people that became Bolsheviks and violently seized power and property (the power and property of the Producers).  Rand responded to the trauma of the revolution in her personal life by proposing a doctrine based upon caricatures of factions from the Russian revolution, she fashioned a philosophical Bolshevik Revolution in reverse.  Capitalist of the world, rise up and take your rightful power.

Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, the Paul’s and many other extreme conservatives base their political actions upon categorizations of people that flow from Randian thought.  Inherent in their policies is the notion that some people are Producers and some people are Looters.  In practice their refusal to tax the obscenely wealthy is a reflection of that philosophical reverence for the monied elite (Wealthy).  The attacks on Unions, Fire Fighters, Police, and Teachers is a direct expression of the belief that people who are not entrepreneurs are of less value.  If they are salaried workers collecting paychecks from the government they are Looters and not worthy of the government’s protection.  This thinking has lead them to propose continued reduction of taxes on corporations and the wealthy.  They have proposed and enacted policies to balance this on the revenue side by a tax on government workers through the devices of wage reduction, benefit reduction, and requirements for increased contributions.

Congressman Ryan believes that people who will need medical coverage in old age are Looters, if they participate in Medicare.  He would base that upon the fact they have not produced the money to pay for astronomically priced private insurance in their old age.  Though he may not say it in public he believes that by accepting Medicare America’s retired workers are looting the rightful property of America’s Producers, the wealthiest 1%.

The vouchers he is proposing for the purchase of medical insurance will either be woefully inadequate or meaningless.  Medicare was originally passed because elderly people could not get medical insurance due to their age and pre-existing conditions.  That circumstance will remain once Medicare is eliminated.  That fact is not discussed by Mr. Ryan’s budget.  As Looters you and I will just have to do without.