A bedtime story for my son

I read my son part of the chapter in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged in which a description of what happened at a car-making plant after the owner died and his communist children took it over, guilted everyone into a vote about running the plant communist-style, and then drove the plant and the spirit of the workers into the ground.

The workers were paid according to their needs instead of their abilities. They became whining beggars because that was the only way to get compensation. The lazy had lots of babies so they'd have more need. The hard workers were punished for their abilities because they were required to perform unpaid overtime. Anyone with ability tried to hide it so they wouldn't be required to provide so much unpaid labor. Those with ability came to resent the needy. They hated every baby born because it meant more uncompensated work for them. Before the company was run communist-style they had rejoiced at co-workers babies and would willing help financially if they thought it was necessary. In the end the communist-style operation drove the company into the ground.

When Nick is much older (probably somewhere around fifteen), I'll have him read the whole book if I can keep him interested enough. It's a great book, but oh so long.