Obama's versus Ayn Rand

I hate when dystopian fiction comes to life. I mentioned recently that I read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and felt that we were living in the sad parts of it.

When I read this editorial by David Harsanyi today her magnum opus sprung to mind. The editorial is about Obama's recent directive that holds executive pay at $500,000 if they accept a government bailout.

As Harsanyi points out, you might think this is morally right, but "Why did we just allow the president to dictate the pay of private citizens working in the private sector?" How does Obama have the right do to this?

Here's the Rand connection. An increasingly desperate government launched an economic directive in an effort to end an economic mess they had brought about. This was called Directive 10-289. Another blogger very kindly wrote it all out, saving me the effort.

Here is Point Seven:

All wages, prices, salaries, dividends, profits, interest rates and forms of income of any nature whatsoever, shall be frozen at their present figures, as of the date of this directive.

How long will it be before the rest of Directive 10-289 is promulgated in real life? Jeez, I really hate it when I live in dystopian fiction. I only wish it were fiction.