Bitter Business

and I don’t care. All I know is we I have a golden opportunity to get rid of Lydia as a share- holder once and for all. I think we’ve got to grab it and] run with it.”
    “I take it you’re in favor of buying her out.”
    “Are you kidding? I’d buy her out in a minute and I’d| mortgage the company to the eyes to do it. Don’t get me wrong; Lydia is my sister and I love her, but that doesn’t ] make me blind to the fact that she has never been any- i thing but a drain on this company. While she’s sitting on Í her rear end getting in touch with her inner child and I thinking up ways to make trouble, the rest of us have a business to run. Have you ever read Karl Marx?”
    “In college,” I replied, surprised at the question.
    “Marx said that what a man doesn’t work for has no value to him. I’d say that pretty much sums up Lydia’s ; relationship to Superior Plating. To her it’s just a dirty factory in a part of town she doesn’t like to visit. But this dirty factory is what pays for her trips to the shrink and that awful collection of modem art of hers. Besides, we have a responsibility to our employees—the people who put food on their tables and braces on their kids’ teeth with the money they earn at Superior Plating. She has no interest in what we do, no understanding of what goes into making the money in the check she so casually cashes every month. Every day is a struggle around here. We’re being squeezed by foreign competition, we have OSHA and the EPA breathing down our necks—” Suddenly Dagny broke off and burst out laughing. “Oh my God, I can’t believe it! 1 I’m starting to sound just like my father.”
    “Your father says that Lydia has no financial reason for wanting to sell—that if she needed money she knows she can always come to him.”
    “Sure, if she needed money—and a lecture—she could go to my dad. And no matter what Dad told you about Arthur, he’s no fool. I’m sure Arthur’s explained to Lydia how much money she will make if she sells her shares. There’s a difference between needing money and wanting financial freedom.”
    “Do you think your father’s right? Is this whole thing her husband Arthur’s idea?”
    “Lydia obviously got the idea from somewhere. She didn’t come up with this all by herself, but it doesn’t matter where it came from. I just think we should do everything in our power to make it as easy as possible for her to sell us her shares.”
    “I have to tell you that when I spoke to your father this morning he did not share your point of view. He says that if Lydia sells her shares, she’d be cheating her children out of their birthright.”
    Dagny leaned back in her chair.
    “Dad has this fantasy about all four of us working together and then passing the company on to our children. The trouble is, that’s all it is—-a fantasy. It’s hard enough for the four of us to get along day to day. Who knows what our children will be like? Believe me, a lot is going to happen between now and our children’s generation and not all of it is going to be pretty.”
    “How do your brothers feel about Lydia selling out? I didn’t have a chance to ask Eugene—”
    “I have no idea what Eugene thinks—if anything. He usually doesn’t get involved in issues like this.”
    “But he has a seat on the board,” I protested.
    “We all do. But Eugene prefers to deal with the day-to-day problems on the plant floor. Everything else he leaves to Dad. Though who knows? Recently he’s been showing signs of independence. Dad’s turning seventy next month and I think it’s making all of us think about the fact that he’s not going to be around forever.”
    “And Philip?”
    “As far as Philip is concerned, the sooner Lydia is out of the picture the better—and good riddance to her. The two of them have never gotten along, not even when they were kids. She just sticks in his craw and he sticks in her craw.... So I don’t blame him for wanting to get rid of her. Can you imagine anything worse than having the person who’s been driving you crazy since the third grade sitting on the board of directors of the company you’re trying to run?”
    “So you’re pretty sure that Philip would vote with you to buy her out at any price?”
    “I’m sure he wants to buy her out, but the price is where it’s bound to get sticky. Philip is an incredible skinflint. He’ll want to buy Lydia out all right, just as , soon as he’s sure that