Atlas shrugs, Atlas starves. The End. The most fatal flaw in Ayn Rand's book.

[stevenleser]

38. My preferred critique of Galt's Gulch is that of the motor that supposedly provides its power

It's clear why Rand used the motor developed by Galt in the book. She tried to create this metaphor of stopping the motor of the world by removing the industrial capitalists and the motor itself created by Galt. The metaphor is pretty weak and superficial without analyzing the impossible physics of the motor. She also needed it because without it, there is nothing powering Galt's Gulch and it becomes an unviable enterprise.

Standard power systems are impossible, because they require large mining operations, shipping/trucking to get the coal or oil or gas to where it needs to go (in 1957 renewable energy sources werent really viable on a large scale), etc. and of course, that is not possible because the Gulch is cut off from the rest of the world.

The solution is this impossible motor that magically captures static electricity from the air.

I talk about that and other critiques of Rand in this video: