Free I Am John Galt by Donald Luskin, Andrew Greta Page A

he declared, “I’ll study electrical engineering, because power companies are the biggest customers of d’Anconia Copper.” For similarly practical career reasons, Rodgers would study the same thing; in fact, he earned a PhD in it. Francisco continued, “I’m going to study philosophy because I’ll need it to protect d’Anconia Copper.” For similarly practical reasons, Rodgers studies the philosophical underpinnings of capitalism, and devotes enormous energies to defending them and evangelizing for them.
    This integration can be seen in the short list of Cypress Core Values on display in the headquarters building where Rodgers makes his office. They are an embodiment of Rodgers’s personal code.
We thrive on competing against the world’s best.
We do not tolerate losing.
We are smart, tough, and work hard.
We tell the truth and don’t make excuses.
We value knowledge, logic, and reason.
We admit to solve problems quickly.
We deplore politicians.
We choose “Cypress wins” over “looking good.”
    Rodgers’s basic logical premise is the concept that, in his own words, “Freedom is good, period. End of discussion.” He doesn’t need economic arguments to accept freedom as a fundamental moral good, but he also recognizes that freedom and wealth go hand in hand. He cites empirical studies from the Fraser Institute showing a clear, direct, and universal correlation between objective measures of freedom and economic prosperity among the nations of the world. The freer you are, the wealthier you are as a society. Both are good things, and you can’t have the latter without the former. Many of his battles in the arena of public opinion have centered around the misguided notion that somehow money is inherently bad, money corrupts, and money is the root of all evil.
    Wearing his signature wire-rimmed owl-round glasses, Rodgers slips easily into his chair—and the conversation. He weaves a complex verbal tapestry from threads of amusing anecdotes and hard facts peppered with mild profanities, including his catchphrase—“bullshit.” The experience is as entertaining as it is informative. Assertive but not bullying, persuasive without coming off as salesy, T. J. Rodgers glows with the gravitas found in those who are truly at ease in their own skin. When listening to Rodgers, you get the feeling he’s not trying to convince you of anything; he’s just calmly reciting the truth for those who choose to hear.
    The Bad Boy of Silicon Valley
    â€œIf you look at second row up, second one from the right—‘The Bad Boy of Silicon Valley,’” begins Rodgers, pointing to an office wall with over a dozen framed magazine covers featuring him, “I got my picture on the cover of BusinessWeek for being the bad boy where I said we were losing to the Japanese because we had crappy quality and didn’t manage our companies as well, and it had nothing to do with government subsidies, and government subsidies will only make it worse.”
    Subsidies, or what T.J. refers to as “corporate welfare,” are a hot-button annoyance for the 62-year-old CEO. He has testified before Congress against government protectionism and pork-barrel spending. He even wrote and published a “Declaration of Independence” from corporate welfare, decrying a government tax burden totaling 35 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and supporting major budget cuts, “even if it meant funding cuts for my own company.” The proclamation was signed by nearly 100 CEOs, including Jerry Sanders of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Wilf Corrigan of LSI Logic, and legendary venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. 3
    â€œYou listen to the CEOs of the really big companies talk blather about free markets and you think okay, I’m CEO, they’re CEO, we’re brothers, we face the same challenges: