What If. . . ?

In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand’s bold assertion was that without the people who possess the money, talent, and ideas to keep the economy humming along, it would surely die a quick, ignominious death because all that would be left would be consumers. And consumers don't produce.

Perhaps, it’s finally time for the Engine of the World to turn off the ignition switch.

Wealth, after all, is a fungible commodity, and talent and ideas are intangible by nature. What I’m proposing is that life imitate art and that those of use who drive the global economy show the rest of us just what would happen if — for a time — the engine were to sputter to a halt.

What would happen?

Rand’s thousand-page tome is a pretty fair description of the consequences of such an event. I don’t need to repeat here in much less eloquent language what she wrote more than 50 years ago.

However, if I may be permitted my own take on the subject, this is what it might look like in a very different world, a half-century later. 

A general slowdown would take place almost immediately. The recent credit crisis and stock market crash would pale in comparison. Wall Street, again, would be blamed for it, as would George W. Bush.

The Internet would be ablaze with speculation about who, what, when, where, and why, making this political season look like a tea party with a bunch of little old ladies.

It wouldn’t be Wall Street’s fault or, for that matter, GWB’s. Traders at the NYSE would be standing around with nothing to do because the ones with the money — let’s call them investors — would not be calling back with buy orders after their initial orders to sell their assets.

Accordingly, stocks would drop; not like a cat from a high perch, landing on its feet, but like a little, old, osteoporotic lady. And when she meets the ground at terminal velocity, her every bone will be shattered.

Businesses of all sizes will begin to feel the effects of the engine seizing up, but small businesses will be the first to fail for lack of sales. The bloodbath of jobs will begin at the bottom and quickly work its way to the Fortune 500 where it will stain the landscape red.

Travel will come to a standstill. As will trade. Food and fuel production will come to a halt. Shortages, after a short time, would be widespread.

Liberals will alternate between screaming for the government to “do something” and begging for the wealthy, the talented, the brightest among us, to have mercy, to demanding that Congress seize the assets of anyone not investing, and make the talented and bright people “give up the goods,” so to speak, a kind of intellectual slavery.

This is not the same America I grew up in, my friends; not by a longshot.

Because capital will dry up, everything we take for granted as a part of everyday life will come to a halt.

The price of fuel will probably plummet due to lack of demand. No jobs, no work, no income, no money for gas. Within a couple months of this, people will begin leaving their cars at home and taking mass transit, riding bicycles, or walking. Only there won’t be anywhere to go because businesses will start shuttering en masse. Why? Because they don’t have the capital to buy goods wholesale.

Within a year, we could be seeing breadlines and soup kitchens again. A stunned look of incredulity will wash across the faces of everyone you see in public.

Suicides will be rampant; so will murder-suicides because breadwinners won’t be able to care for their families.

But this is what it may take to wake the American public from its slumber. We have been sleepwalking far too long and we’ll soon walk off a cliff if we don’t awaken.

We may yet have to go through a purge to get over the binge of buying into the dystopian nightmare the Democrats, the liberals, the leftists, the socialists, the Marxists have been slowly foisting on the public as “economic justice” all in the name of "fairness."

Before it comes to that, what we need to do is rid ourselves of these vermin. While we still can.

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Postscript: This is one of the most powerful videos I've seen this election season. Please take 2 minutes to watch it.