From a Boomberg article by David DeRosa, “Atlas shrugs Venezuelan style as banks close”,
Venezuela is beginning to sound like something out of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged — where the middle class and professionals literally walk off their jobs. Banks have started to join the 40-day-old strike paralyzing the country. Yet things are still at a stalemate with President Hugo Chavez’s opposition demanding that he resign or at least hold a referendum on the continuation of his administration.
Rand’s novel has workers and management refusing to work at jobs requiring more than manual labor skills because they know any wealth they create will be looted from them by an oppressive government. As Rand once wrote: “The man who produces while others dispose of his product is a slave.” […]