Rugged individualism = "don't have much opinion of my own"?

Businesses try to increase in size all of the time, mainly by buying each other or forming associations such as the Chamber of Commerce or the Air Transport Association. I think perhaps these should be called "collectives".

Me a hypocrite? If so, then why is it less hypocritical to praise the magic of the marketplace when businesses try to combine and collude for profit and condemn workers for attempting to form unions and achieve bargaining leverage?

I remember a conversation with a former co-worker who shared the same fundamentalist, right wing, sanctimonious world view. She described watching video of Katrina victims signaling rescue copters from the roofs of their homes, just protruding from the flood waters.

"It's their own fault. They should not rely on the government for salvation. They should take responsibility for themselves." I wondered aloud if she would feel the same way watching her own toddler die of thirst on the hot roof? Would she pray to her maker for salvation even if it came in the form of a black one-world governement helicopter?

Snarky and Mama, why not go totally Galt? Withdraw from this failed society of whiners and shirkers. Gather a small group of other really gifted folk, find a remote valley, and concoct a wonderous system of mirrors to prevent it being spotted by over-flying RJ's. Build a utopia, just the handful of you, with no laborers, no wages, no thieving unions, no health insurance, and no need of law enforcement or dispute resolution.

A previous poster said it better than I; any philosophy most strongly advocated in sixty year old bad fiction with ponderous dialog and strange sex scenes is worthless.