There's at least a grain of truth in that book. Try starting a business or producing something.

Look at domestic attempts to mine lithium or building semiconductor plants. Try building anything here.

“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 rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you. . . you may know that your society is doomed.”

That title tho.

I tried reading Atlas Shrugged. I had a friend that is a die-hard conservative. Neither of us had read Atlas Shrugged, but he referenced it all the time. I told him I'd read Atlas Shrugged with him if he read The Jungle when we were finished. Within a single chapter we both decided the book was trash and we didn't read it. Unfortunately that absolved him of his promise to read The Jungle and a learning opportunity was thwarted by Ayn Rand's inability to write a comprehensible novel.

Started reading Atlas a couple of months ago and put it aside after a third or so. I am used to reading "conventionally boring" stuff but this was such a slog. Super sterile, the characters are stereotypical, the message Rand wants to bring across seems awfully clear very early on. It may be the historical context that makes it more interesting, I didn't see it, though. Just couldn't do it.

Reading your comments on this thread is a relief, maybe there is nothing wrong with me after all.

I am yet to read one actual criticism of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (or any of her other books) that’s about the content itself.

I bet most of you losers have not read any of it and just rely on what others have said…