David Sloan Wilson has written basically a rebuttal to atlas rugged called atlas hugged.

And just imagine what it would be like if that novel succeeded to the degree of grand's novel

and just became a fictional cosmology. What if it had the impact of atlas shrugged? Just think about that.

You mean millions of people just kind of following its philosophy without thinking it through?

Because that's...

From the home offices of civic ventures in downtown Seattle, this is pitchfork economics with Nick Hanauer,

the best place to get the truth about who gets what and why.

I'm Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures.

I'm David Goldstein, senior fellow at Civic Ventures.

So Nick, you're only a few years older than me.

And for late boomers like us, when we were in high school, there was this book that you just had to read people told us.

I never... I couldn't get through it, but did you read atlas shrugged?

I did read atlas shrugged. My dad recommended that I read it when I was in high school. I must have been 16, 17.

You know, my dad was a very intellectual person and I read basically every book.

But I thought it was an important book to read, but also he dismissed it as nonsense. But he just said,

look dude, you got to read this because everybody does.

And I do remember reading it and having it.

I was a little bit puzzled by it, but it's been so long that, you know,

what is interesting is that for a particular personality type, people who came out of the womb as sort of selfish and non empathetic,

boy did it speak to them.

It was like, oh, you mean the more dickish I am, the better off everyone else will be.

You're describing teenagers.

...