Dagny's relentless quest for the motor's inventor further shows the virtues of freedom. In a capitalist system, Dagny could profit from her recognition of the motor's worth. She would be free to hire the inventor and use his motor to revolutionize the transportation industry. In time, customers would recognize the superiority of the new motor, just as they recognized the great merit of Rearden Metal. Taggart Transcontinental's improved transportation would earn the company — and Dagny — a fortune. But under socialism, Rand argues, the goal is to serve the needy and the unproductive, not to provide justice to the men and women of achievement. Like Rearden and Dagny, the motor's inventor would be enslaved to serve a horde of parasites under a socialist government. Rand's message is that capitalism is the system of justice, because it rewards the good. Socialism, on the other hand, is a system of injustice, because it penalizes the good and rewards unproductive moochers.
This chapter's title refers to the rebelliousness of Ellis Wyatt's independent spirit. Wyatt will not be shackled. Rather than permit his achievement to be looted in order to support the parasites, he destroys it. Wyatt is both a symbol and a warning: He is a symbol of the great creative and free spirit that tyranny can't subjugate and a warning to those who try to enslave him. "Don't tread on me" was a saying popular at the time of the American Revolution, and Wyatt represents that same spirit of freedom. He won't serve people who try to loot his property. In defying them, he delivers a severe blow to their scheme to redistribute wealth.
