Bureaucrats vs. Need

Fellow fans and students of Ayn Rand might recall the following quote from Francisco d'Anconia's Atlas Shrugged speech about money:

[W]hen you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing ... you may know that your society is doomed. (p. 385)

One might also recall this conclusion seeming plain as day, for which one can thank Ayn Rand's masterful building of context, by weaving together concrete examples together with philosophical argument.

Taken in isolation, such a statment might make little sense, and certainly would have little intellectual purchase with a reader from a culture saturated with altruism -- the idea that one man's need is a moral claim on another's effort; and collectivism -- the belief that the basic unit of a society is not the individual, but some larger collective to which each individual belongs.

That said, the state government of Louisiana has provided us with a real-life example of what that quote means on a personal level that one is unlikely to forget.

In fact, it's such a good example, I'm torn between looking for where Ayn Rand anticipated it and wondering if she would have left it out for fear of her novel being dismissed as a farce.

[I]n many states, if you want to start a business, you first must convince bureaucrats that your business is "needed."

Four years ago, Louisiana blocked social worker Ursula Newell-Davis from helping kids with special needs. Bureaucrats said she hadn't proved her business was needed.

"Why does the state of Louisiana have the right to stop me from doing what I love?" she asks... [bold added]

It is incredible that anyone would have to explain -- to the satisfaction of someone other than a potential customer -- that what one wants to do for a livelihood is "needed." (And it's doubly so for someone with a good track record of earning money and praise from past clients in that field.)

My incredulity is matched only by my relief to hear from the rest of John Stossel's report that the ridiculous law behind this is being challenged in court by the good people at the Pacific Legal Foundation.

-- CAV