Ayn Rand's Heaven

In Atlas Shrugged, there is actually a sort of "heaven," the place where John Galt and all the other great entrepreneurs and industrious people go for refuge. There even seems to be something "supernatural" about it, in that, at least in the movie, you have to have special technology to get there. To me what this "heaven" shows is that on some level, perhaps subconscious, Rand knew that her vision was out of touch with the real world.

Now, don't get me wrong: I do believe that Ayn Rand was a person with genuine moral values of a sort, but I just think her vision of the world was out of touch. I think her psyche was probably thrown out of whack to some extent by the Russian Revolution, which she was a victim of. The rest of her life, she expected someone to come and seize all her hard-earned wealth. America has never been a country where industrious, talented people couldn't enjoy the fruits of their labor, even during the 50's when the top tax rate was 90%. As Warren Buffett has said, there is simply no evidence that higher taxes on the wealthy are going to keep them from investing in the economy and help create jobs.

"Extremism in the pursuit of moderation is no vice."