My Crazy Uncle Wears a Kilt

Something to chew on while we watch endless pronouncements from the "Office of the President Elect."

In the novel, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957), due to a world economic depression, the President of the United States takes advantage of the crisis to implement Directive 10-289, a kind of economic Marshall Law. Here is a shortened version of the seven parts of the directive. In the full version there were penalties including imprisonment and confiscation of property for each infraction, and teenagers turning 18 years old had to register for "assignment" to a profession. The Directive gave total control of the economy to an un-elected group of union heads (with several token CEOs) called the Unification Board.

Could this kind of economic policy happen in America? Well, perhaps you are too young to remember Richard Nixon's freeze on wages and prices. Listen to the "Squad" and even Joe Biden in his unguarded moments. To think that it cannot happen here is to allow it to happen here. One year ago who would have thought that our governors would put people in jail for going to church, forbid us to travel or even leave our houses, or gather peacefully (protests, violent or not excepted of course), and destroy our jobs in the name of public safety? Those are the things that happen in Socialist Countries, not the United States, right?


Directive 10-289

1. All employees or wage earners of any kind shall henceforth be attached to their current jobs and may not be discharged, or quit said employment.

2. All industrial and manufacturing entities shall henceforth remain in operation, and owners of said establishments shall not quit, retire, sell or transfer their business.

3. All copyrights and patents pertaining to any invention, formula or process shall be transferred to the federal government by means of gift certificates signed by the present owners of said copyrights and patents.

4. No new devices, inventions, products or goods of any nature are to be created or manufactured and the Office of Patents and Copyrights is hereby suspended.

5. Every company or sole proprietor shall henceforth produce the same quantity of goods or provide the same services as in the basic year--the year just ended. No more or no less.

6. Every citizen, regardless of income, shall henceforth spend the same amount of money as in the basic year.

7. All wages, prices, dividends and other forms of income are hereby frozen at present figures.

Directive 10-289 shall be administered and enforced by the Unification Board, whose decisions will be final. (No judicial recourse.)

And from your Crazy Uncle who wears a kilt, here's wishing you a Happy Lockdown and Cold Dark Winter.