In the Atlas Shrugged chapter entitled “Wyatt’s Torch” (1.10), Rand has the increasingly desperate central planners pass the “Public Stability Law,” one provision of which states that “All the manufacturing establishments of the country, of any size and nature, were forbidden to move from their present locations.” In the novel’s collapsing economy, many companies are fleeing the over-regulated and -taxed states for relatively freer locations.
In Illinois, the Associated Press reports today that “Construction companies that want to work for Illinois government would have to promise not to move out of state under a proposal moving through the Legislature.” Desperate to cover its high spending and budget deficits, the state government of Illinois recently dramatically increased its personal and corporate taxes. As a result, major companies like Caterpillar are considering leaving.
Rand’s genius was much less about yarn-spinning than about pattern recognition. She saw how collectivism plays out.