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Comment by jimnotgym | Hacker News Reader

For anyone who wants to investigate the connection between poverty and society further, I can highly recommend, Rutger Bregman's book 'Utopia for realists'. It is funny to see cases in history where well researched,cost effective and progressive social programs have been stopped due to plain prejudice from those in power.

I keep hearing Ayn Rand mentioned these days. Reading those long tedious books can give you fodder for some interesting thought experiments, but beyond that I find the ideas not just damaging, but childishly simplistic. When I hear that some bigshot tech mogul is a follower of Rand I feel that they are about to make excuses for their appalling behavior by making appeal to some kind of authority. I associate Rand with white supremacists and debunked myths

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>It is funny to see cases in history where well researched,cost effective and progressive social programs have been stopped due to plain prejudice from those in power.

That's how I view free market economics. The benefits of having strong market institutions (e.g. low taxes, private property rights, contract freedom) in fostering economic development and reducing poverty [1] is one of the most empirically validated theories in economics, and yet we have a bevy of social scientists continually advocating for policies, like forced income redistribution in the form of ever expanding welfare programs [2], that undermine it.

>I keep hearing Ayn Rand mentioned these days.

I keep hearing Ayn Rand mentioned in personal attacks against me these days.

>I associate Rand with white supremacists and debunked myths

That's not a constructive comment. Yes you disagree with advocates of the free market. Expressing how vehemently you disagree with them isn't going to help anyone understand each other better.

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-pol...

[2] http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/

Regarding Rand, I hear her referenced more by libertarian detractors than any actual libertarians.

Largely because Ayn Rand was not Libertarian, she founded Objectivism and has complete disdain for many Libertarians of the time.

Objectivism shares many things in common with small subset of Right leaning Libertarian Philosophy Anarcho-Capitalism, but not all Libertarians are AnCaps despite what they (anCaps) claim

Paul Ryan, the primary author of the House healthcare bill, gives out an Ayn Rand book to all of his interns [0].

Fountainhead and especially Atlas Shrugged are engaging works of science fiction. I recommend everyone read at least one. And then keep in mind this quote [1]:

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

[0] http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/7-ways-paul-rya... [1] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/366635-there-are-two-novels-...

Brad Keywell, the non-lefkofsky half of Lightbank (incubator for Groupon) also gives out Rynd books to his employees for christmas.

I'll also recommend Hillbilly Elegy (more narrative and focuses on modern rural poverty in America) and Coming Apart (a bit more data driven and explanatory) on this subject.

Admirers of Rand making appeals to authority? That's an obvious contradiction to anyone who had even read one page of the cliff notes of her philosophy. Someone, you or they, are confused.

When they quote Rand's philosophy as a reason to do something, they are appealing to authority.

I would also reccomend 'The Unwinding' by George Packer.

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