Washington, D.C., April 13, 2009--In reaction to legislation that would tax away almost all the bonus money of some AIG employees, Peter Schwartz, a distinguished fellow and former chairman of the board of the Ayn Rand Institute, released an op-ed(1) warning against the danger of mob rule in America.

According to Mr. Schwartz, “The House passed an extraordinary piece of punitive--and unconstitutional--legislation to tax away almost all the bonus money” from AIG employees. Observing that these employees have been “crudely vilified,” that they have been “targets of death threats,” and that they were even urged by a U.S. senator to kill themselves, Mr. Schwartz concluded that all these developments “are tantamount to rule by mob action.”

“The essence of mob rule,” explained Mr. Schwartz, “is arbitrary and unchecked force, in disregard of all rights.

“When the government spends our money with virtually no limits--when trillions of dollars are gleefully disbursed through unrestrained horse-trading and arm-twisting among members of Congress--when trillions more are poured down the rat holes of failing companies at the uncontrolled discretion of bureaucrats--when government ‘czars’ can select a company’s CEO and dictate its product line--then what we have is government by mob rule. That is, we have government with arbitrary, unchecked power to do as it wishes--which means: government unconstrained by the principle of individual freedom.

“Once the mob-rule mentality takes hold,” warned Mr. Schwartz, “everyone becomes a potential target.”

Peter Schwartz

Copyright © 2009 Ayn Rand Institute. All rights reserved.

1) http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=22995&news_iv_ctrl=1021

Peter Schwartz is the author of The Foreign Policy of Self-Interest: A Moral Ideal for America, and the editor and contributing author of Ayn Rand’s Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution. He is the former chairman of the board of directors of the Ayn Rand Institute and former editorial director of its op-ed program. Mr. Schwartz was the founding editor and publisher of The Intellectual Activist, a periodical covering political, cultural and philosophic issues, and is the author of The Battle for Laissez-Faire Capitalism—a collection of articles he wrote for that publication.