"Her books provided wide-ranging parables of "parasites," "looters" and "moochers" using the levers of government to steal the fruits of her heroes' labor. In the real world, however, Rand herself received Social Security payments and Medicare benefits under the name of Ann O'Connor (her husband was Frank O'Connor)."

http://www.alternet.org/story/149721/ayn_rand_railed_against...

Okay, I'm anti-Rand as much as anyone, but why wouldn't she receive SS benefits and Medicare? She paid into it! The logic in that statement is circular: "SS/Medicare is not stealing but Ayn Rand stole the fruits of others' labor by collecting SS/Medicare." Doesn't work.

This is a common smear spread by Rand's haters. She explained the principle in this article which the haters conveniently ignore;

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/government_grants_and_scho...

So, her principle is basically "it's always bad to accept government handouts, unless you're an Objectivist, in which case it's fine so long as you complain very loudly while receiving them."

I wish I were kidding.

I don't agree with her on the specific point, but I actually agree with her more broadly. If your everyday life doesn't match up with your ideals, you don't have to martyr yourself to be a good person. Hypocrisy is a normal state of affairs. For example, it's okay for me to complain about sweatshops but still buy running shoes that are made in them. It's okay for me to send my kids to a private school because the public schools in my area are terrible, even though I believe in raising taxes to support a high quality public education for everyone and making private schools obsolete.

>For example, it's okay for me to complain about sweatshops but still buy running shoes that are made in them.

I don't think that's actually true, even though I do the same.

I think it cheapens my character. I believe even if I'm vocal about my feelings about sweatshop labor, that doesn't really matter when I still support it financially.

It really just means that I'm not as good of a person as I'd like to be.

>Rand herself received Social Security payments and Medicare benefits

If you pay into it then why would you not take the money? You are being ridiculous.