Majority Rule

A crucial problem that has plagued the characters in Atlas Shrugged is the control that the public has over the country. Although some could argue that public opinion controlling the county is the basis of democracy in the American government, but the creators of the American government (the founding fathers) wanted to ensure that the majority could never control the minority. And yet as we see in Atlas Shrugged, the basis of which the founding fathers wanted our government to stand on has fallen. The public, the majority, is controlling the corporations, the minority.

For decades in America, it has been a part of our culture, as described in Atlas Shrugged, to criticize major companies or corporations, which is evident in the fact that there is negative connotation in the word “corporation”. People such as James Taggart and Wesley Mouch argue from their soapbox on how corporations are immoral, but fail to mention that consumers have a remarkably stronger hold over the suppliers. There are no corporations without people to demand their product. We have made it so that consumers in America do not relay on one company for any one product. If one company fails to respond to demand from consumers, the company will fall, and another will rise up in its place. Accordingly, consumers have the power of competition.

People such as James Taggart and Wesley Mouch find honor in the arrogance and ignorance of criticizing the producer, and fail to recognize that those creating goods and services are much more honorable than consuming those goods and services.