A realidade supera a ficção

Fui hoje de encontro a uma carta de Gordon Clark onde ele explica porque recentemente fechou a Clark Foam na California, EUA.

A carta parece um qualquer excerto do romance de Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged mas por fim apercebemo-nos que Gordon Clark é uma pessoa real, um inovador na sua área, um industrial que criou emprego a pessoas reais e não apenas um personagem da conhecida filósofa. Para quem já leu ficam aqui algumas referências:

Gordon Clark: Effective immediately Clark Foam is ceasing production and sales of surfboard blanks.
Atlas Shrugged: Quem é John Galt?

GC: The way the government goes after places like Clark Foam is by an accumulation of laws, regulations, and subjective decisions they are allowed to use to express their intent.
AS: Quem não se lembra das directivas patrocinadas por James Taggart? (Ver na carta de Clark o número de agências diferentes que o visitaram).

GC: One supplier moved out of California in one day and was trucking in from out of state. Now they quit altogether.) If this proposed legislation passes it appears TDI will essentially be banned in California.
AS: O fim do centro industrial?

GC: When the Surfrider Foundation was just a Volkswagon Bug and a couple of guys I gave them $10,000 being the seed money to get started. Now the Surfrider foundation is a leading advocate of the storm water runoff legislation.
AS: A forma como o politico profissional encarregue de lobby em Washington a favor de Hank Rearden o trai quando é colocada legislação a votos sobre o seu metal?

GC: Almost $400,000 in lawyers fees and the ex-employee suing Clark Foam got $17,000. The Judge in the lawsuit advised me “this is just the cost of doing business (in California)”.
AS: Sem palavras... o custo de fazer negócios em Atlas Shrugged era ainda mais elevado.

GC: Another owner or tenant cannot use the buildings without bringing them up to current code. This is impossible so the buildings will probably be torn down. There is no sense discussing the issue of permits or using the Clark Foam facility further.
AS: A chama de Wyatt quando destruio o seu campo petrolífero?

GC: Upon founding Clark Foam I began using different foam formulations, processing methods, and equipment than the other blank manufacturers. Today my plant is almost all original designs, built in house by our staff and myself. The small amount of equipment purchased outside of Clark Foam was built to my specifications or modified by me for our unique process. To sum this up no one in the United States or for that matter the rest of the world uses equipment and a process like mine. It is very unique and there was nothing on earth ever built this way before.
AS: Um inovador a ser castigado por taxação e multas? Onde vi isto antes? John Galt? Hank Rearden?

GC: When Clark Foam was started it was a far different California. Businesses like Clark Foam were very welcome and considered the leading edge of innovation and technology. Somewhere along the way things have changed.
AS: Tipica tirada de Ayn Rand sobre os EUA.

GC: The only apology I will make to customers and employees is that I should have seen this coming many years sooner and closed years ago in a slower, more predictable manner. I waited far too long, being optimistic rather than realistic. I also failed to do my homework.
AS: E agora, infelizmente, parece Dagny Taggart quem fala.

Uma vitória para os "verdes" e provavelmente para quem irá comprar o terreno agora abandonado pela sua fábrica, uma perca para quem dedicou a sua vida a trabalhar no que gostava e a fazer com que muitos disfrutassem de um hobby como o surf.

Para terminar queria apenas deixar umas poucas palavras vindas de Francisco D'Anconia quando em Atlas Shrugged faz uma dicertação sobre o dinheiro:
When you see that trading is done not by consent but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods but in favors - when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - then you will know that your society is doomed.