In Atlas Shrugged, many individuals of ability faced obstacles that threatened to destroy everything they stood for. John Galt gave them a way to live their lives without those obstacles. Ragnar Danneskjöld was one of John Galt’s close friends making him one of the first to hear John’s plan to take the world back from the looters. Danneskjöld said to Hank Rearden that he loved that which had rarely been loved, namely, human ability. When he said this, he meant that many individuals in the book take human ability for granted, shown by the fact that several business plans follow the idea of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” (623). This idea took what men were able to complete and gave them money for their need. When they are compensated for their need, and do not have the risk of being fired for their lack of ability, then they can show that their ability is lower than it really is and still receive pay to sustain them. When employees have a say in what they receive paid for, they may decide on an easy way out of work. They could then collect pay according to their claimed needs, which may or may not be real. In the Atlas Shrugged, Jeff Allen explained the effects this had at the Twentieth Century Motor Company. People brought relatives to live with them so they could receive more money or claimed that their children needed various things, such as cosmetic braces, so they would not have inferiority complexes. When the heirs that took over the factory presented the idea, all of the employees, except a select few, voted for it due to the fact that it seemed to them a person would be heartless not to. However, when they progressed with the idea, they realized that they made a mistake with how they had thought they would receive their pay. They realized that they would need to pull several strings to receive money for their wants since “the family” decided what a need was. Deciding how to compensate workers for their labor can become difficult as not everyone will agree that they are receiving just compensation. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” (623) does not encourage people to perform duties to their full ability. When people receive pay for their miseries rather than the work they do, they may seek to create more miseries in their lives to obtain a larger allocation of money. Many people in the book receive pay, not based on their ability to produce, but rather on their ability to prove they are victims. This ability, however, is not one that Danneskjöld respects, as seen with who his customers are. James Taggart is Dagny Taggart’s older brother, yet, unlike Dagny, he is not one of Danneskjöld’s customers. Only the people who really work for their profit are part of Danneskjöld’s list of clients since he loved people’s ability to produce and earn and not people’s ability to take
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Jim Taggart supported this plan on account of the fact that Atlantic Southern was using their Taggart Bridge over the Mississippi free of charge. The reason this was necessary was that Taggart Transcontinental accidentally blew up part of their transcontinental track. So, while Atlantic Southern was not receiving compensation for it. The earnings of each company was put into the hands of a Board and it was distributed by how much track the company owed, regardless of whether that track was being used or not. Cuffy Meigs told Dagny she had nothing to worry about since Taggart Transcontinental “own(ed) the largest track mileage of any railroad in the country” (781). Most of their transcontinental track’s maintenance, however, fell to their competitors on account of the fact that, under the Unification Plan, all railroads used each other’s tracks free of charge. This is what Ragnar Danneskjöld meant when he said that human ability is rarely loved, seeing that in this instance, the Railroad Unification Plan takes for granted that the other railroad companies will allow their competitors to exploit their ability and receive the profit from it
Jim Taggart supported this plan on account of the fact that Atlantic Southern was using their Taggart Bridge over the Mississippi free of charge. The reason this was necessary was that Taggart Transcontinental accidentally blew up part of their transcontinental track. So, while Atlantic Southern was not receiving compensation for it. The earnings of each company was put into the hands of a Board and it was distributed by how much track the company owed, regardless of whether that track was being used or not. Cuffy Meigs told Dagny she had nothing to worry about since Taggart Transcontinental “own(ed) the largest track mileage of any railroad in the country” (781). Most of their transcontinental track’s maintenance, however, fell to their competitors on account of the fact that, under the Unification Plan, all railroads used each other’s tracks free of charge. This is what Ragnar Danneskjöld meant when he said that human ability is rarely loved, seeing that in this instance, the Railroad Unification Plan takes for granted that the other railroad companies will allow their competitors to exploit their ability and receive the profit from it