Plenty of reasons Rand was wrong

SOMEONE NEEDS to point out to Edward Hudgins ("Still a voice of reason," op ed Jan. 29) and other resurgent misty-eyed, laissez-faire-lovin', neo-conservatives that their heroine Ayn Rand was much more a science fiction writer than a true, insightful philosopher or economist.

ADVERTISEMENT

History is riddled with the consequences of unregulated, unbalanced, money-driven societies where power and wealth become concentrated in the top few bricks of what is essentially a very large pyramid scheme. Oftentimes Rand's rugged, ambitious individuals of high achievement might be seen to prefigure some of history's worst criminals.

In this country, they were robber barons like Jim Fisk and Joy Gould, who along with other "successful businessmen" propagated the first financial "Black Friday" out of sheer, unmitigated greed devoid of any sense of conscience or concern for others.

One does not have to look very hard these days to see similar traits in current "achievers" that the history-ignorant like Hudgins admire so much.

BERNIE CONNEELY

Somerville