When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Actually she was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1905 and escaped to the U.S. in 1926, age 21. She lived through the Russian Revolution and the beginnings of the Soviet regime. Her novel We the Living is based on what she went through in those years. She changed her name from Alissa Rosenbaum to Ayn Rand when she became naturalized in the U.S.
Thank you! I had forgotten this
You bet, fren!
I was going to mention We the Living! That was eye-opening. I still think about that book, years later. Powerful
Agreed! More personal and emotional than her later novels.