Atlas Shrugged [718]
"The country is in a terrible state. People are starving and giving up, the economy is falling to pieces, nobody is producing any longer.
We don't know what to do about it. You do. You know how to make things work. Okay, we're ready to give in. We want you to tell us what to do."
"I told you what to do."
"What?"
"Get out of the way."
"That's impossible! That's fantastic! That's out of the question!"
"You see? I told you we had nothing to discuss."
"Now, wait! Wait! Don't go to extremes! There's always a middle ground. You can't have everything. We aren't . . . people aren't ready for it. You can't expect us to ditch the machinery of State.
We've got to preserve the system. But we're willing to amend it. We'll modify it any way you wish. We're not stubborn, theoretical dogmatists-we're flexible. We'll do anything you say. We'll give you a free hand. We'll co-operate. We'll compromise. We'll split fifty-fifty. We'll keep the sphere of politics and give you total power over the sphere of economics. We'll turn the production, of the country over to you, we'll make you a present of the entire economy. You'll run it any way you wish, you'll give the orders, you'll issue the directives-and you'll have the organized power of the State at your command to enforce your decisions. We'll stand ready to obey you, all of us, from me on down. In the field of production, we'll do whatever you say. You'll be-you'll be the Economic Dictator of the nation!"
Galt burst out laughing.
It was the simple amusement of the laughter that shocked Mr.
Thompson. "What's the matter with you?"
"So that's your idea of a compromise, is it?"
"What's the . . . ? Don't sit there grinning like that! . . . I don't think you understood me. I'm offering you Wesley Mouch's job-and there's nothing bigger that anyone could offer you! . . . You'll be free to do anything you wish. If you don't like controls-repeal them. If you want higher profits and lower wages-decree them. If you want special privileges for the big tycoons-grant them. If you don't like labor unions-dissolve them. If you want a free economy-order people to be free! Play it any way you please. But get things going. Get the country organized. Make people work again. Make them produce.
Bring back your own men-the men of brains. Lead us to a peaceful, scientific, industrial age and to prosperity."
"At the point of a gun?"
"Now look, I . . . Now what's so damn funny about it?"
"Will you tell me just one thing: if you're able to pretend that you haven't heard a word I said on the radio, what makes you think I'd be willing to pretend that I haven't said it?"
"I don't know what you mean! I-"
"Skip it. It was just a rhetorical question. The first part of it answers the second."
"Huh?"
"I don't play your kind of games, brother-if you want a translation."
"Do you mean that you're refusing my offer?"
"I am."
"But why?"
"It took me three hours on the radio to tell you why."
"Oh, that's just theory! I'm talking business. I'm offering you the greatest job in the world. Will you tell me what's wrong with it?"
"What I told you, in three hours, was that it won't work."
"You can make it work."
"How?"
Mr. Thompson spread his hands out. "I don't know. If I did, I wouldn't come to you. It's for you to figure out. You're the industrial genius. You can solve anything."
"I said it can't be done."
"You could do it"
"How?"
"Somehow." He heard Galt's chuckle, and added, "Why not? Just tell me why not?"
"Okay, I'll tell you. You want me to be the Economic Dictator?"
"Yes!"
"And you'd obey any order I give?"
"Implicitly!"
"Then start by abolishing all income taxes."
"Oh, no!" screamed Mr. Thompson, leaping to his feet. "We couldn't do that! That's . . . that's not the field of production. That's the field of distribution. How would we pay government employees?"
"Fire your government employees."
"Oh, no! That's politics! That's not economics! You can't interfere with politics! You can't have everything!"
Galt crossed his legs on the hassock, stretching himself more comfortably in the brocaded