Railroad Rand (5: The miner)
Ayn Rand believed that all government was evil. So evil, in fact, that even borrowing money from it to buy a business was a sin that deserved a death sentence.
The armed libertarian
Ayn Rand thought that governments were not to be trusted, and the world would be a better place if they didn’t exist, but she still thought an army to be a necessity. More extreme libertarians disagree. They want lots of them.
Mendocino dry
As far as the Mendocino water shortage is concerned, Ayn Rand’s former disciple Murray Rothbard has presented his own solution to a similar problem. He came, of course, to his inevitable conclusion. Free, unfettered private enterprise would deliver.
Railroad Rand (4: The Press Baron)
Ayn Rand’s well-documented contempt for newspaper owners and the people who worked for them was not logical. If successful, these were people living out her dream. They were in business, and businesses, in her philosophy, should not be subject to regulation.
Railroad Rand (3): The Teacher
Ayn Rand despised most educators, but at least she thought that children should be educated. Some of her erstwhile followers went much further. For Murray Rothbard, education was something that prevented children from fulfilling their proper roles, as productive economic units.
Railroad Rand (2): The journalist
One thing I didn’t anticipate when I decided to look at the role played by a railway in Atlas Shrugged was that only a few weeks later the UK would be facing something of a rail crisis of its own. But at least our rail companies have not taken the Ayn Rand option, and blamed the passengers.