The one poignant thought I was left with after reading all of Rand's works was "take care of yourself(and your loved ones)" and therefore not be a burden on society. The most noble thing one can do for one's society is live and prosper and in doing so not be a burden on thy neighbor.
That's fine. But she doesn't end it there. She takes it to a cardboard cutout extreme and, in the process, loses her way: http://www.mskousen.com/Books/Articles/0101aynrand.html She must have been an attention hound in her day just as marketsurfer and Michael Covel are today. She expounded on the virtues of selfishness when she could have gotten greater traction (but less notoriety?) with promoting ambition. Similarly, rather than advance the virtues of ambition, marketsurfer and Covel make noise pushing the "greed is good" mantra ala Ivan Boesky and cinema's Gordon Gekko. It has "look at me" written all over it: http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2495002&highlight=ambition#post2495002
It seems they're having a bit of success in the music and television industries using Roark's supply driven demand. I can't for the life of me understand what anyone finds pleasurable in metal and rap. Are there people who actually want reruns of Roseanne or that Will Smith series or do they exist because of their clout with the industry? Is it possible to invoke a cult following with enough repetition that evolves to command a segment and if its lucky mainstream? How about architecture. Peter Lewis the founder of Progressive insurance surely took a couple tokes before seeing Frank Gerhy's work and saying, "build me one a those" ...there was no concensus; the demand was all his. Earmarks are another way to get your dreams funded with little input from discerning or even funding voices.
Randites like Rand because she told narcissists that is it "good to be a narcissist." Kind of like Gordon Gekko saying "greed is good." Rand was not very evolved, which is why her primitive shallow thinking is not taught much in philosophy classes on major universities... Her appeal the self absorbed "me" generation says it all...
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There are so many ways at looking at the same subject, it is impossible to ascertain who is right or wrong at any given time. For all I care, everybody's take on Rand is correct based on what that person has lived or experienced in their own life. The reason why Rand is in vogue today is only because of the economic times. One clear comparison is how IRS a.k.a. U.S. Goverment Looting Mechanism is slowly becoming the Robin Hood of our times. Today the senate is making health care a right. Nothing wrong with that. To pay for this right of 'the people', the richest now will have to pay an extra 1% tax. Not a big deal. But a time will come when a 2% will be mandatory, then 3%.......etc....look at CA. The system, even though it has the best interest of 'the people', is fundamentally flawed. Look at what happened when the government decided to change the mortgage rules in 1994 to help 'the people'. You think the stock market bubble and real estate bubble were just a coincidence? I am not suggesting that is wrong to help the less fortunate, it's just that our government seems to be following Rand's story. Unfortunately.
I stand corrected. http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticke...ill-Cost-Way-Beyond-1T-Ron-Paul-Says?tickers=^dji,^GSPC,pph,jnj,mrk,pfe,unh&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=
Let's say there's 20M or so people without heathcare. Just give them friggin heathcare cards and be done with it. Those boneheads in DC don't have to go screwing everyone else with gov't heathcare. I don't like the idea of giving away freebies, but if keeps the rest of us payers from having to endure a gov't program, lets just do it. I guess KISS makes too much sense for this administration.