This book is so incredible b/c she lived through government tyranny. Most of us never had and refuse to learn from history. Unfortunately, I believe too well what a friend said about the book- "She's been right so far, why would the ending turn out any different?"

Ayn Rand's writing is one of the most harsh indictments of Communism, or more specifically the Soviet education she received.

Beyond her abysmal writing, her ideas were ridiculous and in many cases sick. Forget welfare, private charity was anathema to her. Under her philosophy, any time you help someone else without getting something in return you are committing a cardinal sin, and even marital fidelity is wrong (though she somehow made an exception for her husband, but not her).

Her ideas about the world, that it was divided between wealthy attractive achievers and poor ugly urchins was simply not real, unless you consider Paris Hilton more of an achiever than the (notably socialist) Albert Einstein. The premise of Atlas Shrugged, that our society would fall apart without the ultra-rich, but they could easily live alone is utterly idiotic (illustrated here: http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif).

Rand essentially spent her life as the leader of a Cult of Sociopathy. She didn't even care for the various political movements (libertarianism) that developed from her works, because it wasn't about that, it was about being a sick little utterly self absorbed person who rationalized their own mental illness as the only moral way.

...Sports teams (NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, etc.), art classes (Dale Chihuly, Google private art classes! >27 Million hits), for that fact Google any of the things you said the free market can not support and you will see that there are plenty of free market entries in those fields.

What is wrong with ""...the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." -- Ayn Rand

While Atlas Shrugged is among the best books I've read, I am a real-life Hank and will raise my two boys as such.

I feel bad for the kid...on the playground screaming "I got this bouncy ball on my own, no one helped me...I did it myself". Then to middle school, alone with no friends because he keeps ranting on how he is an individual and is a product of his decisions and the poor kids decided they want to be poor. Then in high school he runs for class president on a platform of banning the sports teams, art classes, music classes, theatre classes because his parent's money shouldn't go to fund classes that cant be funded in the free market. Then in college, having never made a single mistake, having never encountered a single stroke of luck, and having done it all by his ability to make only the right decision he realizes Ayn Rand is the Objectivist version of Marx. Her books and more importantly her ideas would be fantastic, if only people weren't involved. Thus having his dream crushed he begins to live a life in reality and recognizes the majority of the things we go through have nothing to do with rational thought or any decision we have made.

Yeah, thats about right. Children are by nature selfish. They have to be taught to share.