Ayn Rand considered Atlas Shrugged her ultimate statement of a philosophy she called Objectivism. The story is set in an Industrial Age America, dominated by steel mills, railroads, and oil refineries. The protagonist, Dagny Taggert, is the phenomenally efficient VP of Operation for Taggart Transcontinental. (That means she keeps the trains running on time for those of you who don't chase them as a hobby). She and several other industrialists are alone in a country awash in incompetence and adopting a belief in "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". Business leaders begin passing laws to prevent competition, arguing their companies provide a social service by their existence, and that they should not be punished just because another company builds better products or actually delivers them on schedule. The situation rapidly declines into a country were power is based on how much "pull" one has in Washington and not on whether one is any good. Throughout the country, her fellow titans begin to quit and disappear, allowing their companies to be taken over and run into the ground. Her search to understand why they are leaving and while struggling to keep her railroad running form the core of the book. I read this book at a time when two of my friends had voluntarily stopped working and I was considering walking off mine. With each disappearing character, I found myself wondering if the book wasn't a sign of some kind. Atlas Shrugged is very prone to long oratories on philosophy. While that might make sense in the complete transcript of a three-hour radio address, it is a little odd for conversations between actual people. Several of the characters are just a little over-the-top in their abilities, even for people living an ideal existence. I will have to re-read the book before I'll attempt to describe Objectivism to the world. Some basic tenants would be that rational thought is moral thought. That we should view the world as we see it, not interpret it based on an unproven assumption. And that the people we love are an expression of our values.
As a final note: Her book The Fountainhead is one of my all-time favorites.