Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan: Social Security Recipients Against Social Security
Posted by Phoenix Woman on January 27, 2011
This is hilarious (courtesy Blue Texan):
Critics of Social Security and Medicare frequently invoke the words and ideals of author and philosopher Ayn Rand, one of the fiercest critics of federal insurance programs. But a little-known fact is that Ayn Rand herself collected Social Security. She may also have received Medicare benefits.
An interview recently surfaced that was conducted in 1998 by the Ayn Rand Institute with a social worker who says she helped Rand and her husband, Frank O’Connor, sign up for Social Security and Medicare in 1974.
Federal records obtained through a Freedom of Information act request confirm the Social Security benefits.
As Blue Texan points out, what makes this extra-special is this: The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights has an article on its website right now titled, “Social Security is Immoral.”
But wait! There’s more! Ayn Rand’s most powerful representative in government, a teabagger doofus named Paul Ryan (R-WI), not only also collected Social Security after his father died, it’s what put him through college:
One day as a 16 year old, Ryan came upon the lifeless body of his father. Paul Ryan, Sr. had died of a heart attack at age 55, leaving the Janesville Craig High School 10th grader, his three older brothers and sisters and his mother alone. It was Paul who told the family of his father’s death.
With his father’s passing, young Paul collected Social Security benefits until age 18, which he put away for college. To make ends meet, Paul’s mother returned to school to study interior design. His siblings were off at college. Ryan remembers this difficult time bringing him and his mother closer.
Now Ryan, like his heroine Rand, wants to deny to others what he benefitted from himself. Typical.
23 Responses to “Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan: Social Security Recipients Against Social Security”
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Felipe said
Just because they benefited from an imposed system doesnt mean it is a moral system.
Phoenix Woman said
So ending the age-old problem of poverty among the elderly isn’t moral, Felipe?
America’s Social Security program has not only lifted America’s elderly out of poverty, it’s also much more cost-effective than privatized old-age insurance programs in the rest of the world, such as the United Kingdom or Chile. (Chile’s privatized plans in particular are having horrific problems, including the very real threat of insolvency, far more real than that claimed about the US’ Social Security.) Argentina’s privatized plans were doing so poorly they had to be nationalized in 2008.
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Michael Lay said
This is so typical of Ayn Rand and all her hypocritical acolytes. I’ve witnessed the same phenomenom in my own extended-by-marriage family. These people receive tens of thousands of dollars annually courtesy of the federal government during their youth and then got basically a free ride to college, and not affordable state land-grant universities like the one I attended and worked my way through, but high-priced “boutique” universities and then graduated to have largely successful careers and now they’re all Republicans trying to deprive other Americans of access to the opportunities provided to THEM. Unreal.
Charles II said
Well, you know one gets rich, Michael. One takes everything one can and gives nothing back.
Or that’s the theory, anyway.
Dehnus said
Although I don’t agree with Ayn Rand, I think that in the latter case of mister Ryan I can easily forgive him. I mean it must have been a shock to find your father dead, so I do think he was entitled to that money. To later turn around and say nobody should get it, isn’t nice, but I still won’t hold it against him.
Ayn Rand on the other hand, I always wondered, if you aren’t allowed to do violence, then how are you allowed to own land ;). After al, all land was taken from others by force in some time or another. And Randies say they opose violence against anybody. So nobody should own land, since the other solution she offered, having one person rent out your land to you and your people to start a tax free state is even worse.
1. He took the land by force (or his ancestors did).
2. He basically becomes your government taxing you for the land you own, if you don’t pay you should be removed? Or is that violence again? Or even worse? Socialist redistribution of wealth?
Charles II said
It’s not a question of forgiving Ryan or not, Dehnus. Of course he was entitled to the money! His Dad earned that benefit.
No, the point is that Paul Ryan was happy to have some money for college, and now he would steal the money that other people have earned for their children.
Republicanism is, at its heart, based on theft.
earle edmunds said
ryan is looking to return to serfdom
Pascal Arlotta said
The criticism of Ryan collecting his father’s benefit is so disingenuous because it automatically transfers to the spouse and children of the house. The budget that the dems put together when they had the house…oh…they didn’t. The GOP has to deal with the trillions Barry has had a good time putting together for the grand kids, while desolating our oil production but Barry has set us up with Brazil to help us with our foreign oil issues. Oh I’m sure his bud’s Soros is appreciative with all his shares of Petrobras stock.
Charles II said
Pascal, I don’t know if anyone has told you that you so full of sh-t that it’s leaking out of your eyes.
If not, anyone calling themselves your friend should have.
Let’s start with one statement from your drivel:”Barry has had a good time putting together for the grand kids, while desolating our oil production…”
Here is a graph of US oil production. It includes non-conventional production (e.g., shale and tar sands as the red diamond symbols on the graph. Assuming that you can read, you can find further information in the article from which that graph comes.
What you may notice, assuming that you can tell up from down, is that oil production in the US peaked around 1970. The notion that Obama has been “desolating” oil production is so idiotic that it deserves a whole separate wing being built onto the insane asylum.
Now that Glenn Beck has managed to alienate every advertiser in America, you’re going to need someone else to do your thinking for you. It would be really nice if that person could be you.
Gimme Mine « Caelum Et Terra said
[…] Rand acolyte Paul Ryan also has collected Social Security benefits, which put him through college: https://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/ayn-rand-paul-ryan-social-security-recipients-against-s… […]
Chris said
I love the liberal mindset. Only a liberal could look at the government taking a quarter of man’s lifetime earnings, giving back less than half of that to his family, and call it a “benefit”. Such doublespeak would have George Orwell rolling over in his grave.
Charles II said
Let me put this delicately, Chris: you’re a shameless liar.
At this point, government is only taking in in taxes about half of what it spends. So, for what you’re claiming to be true, nothing that it does could be a benefit.
But let’s take a more representative time than this one, in which the deficit is the direct consequence of Republican policies that stimulated a financial bubble and corruption in the financial sector. During this and any time, government operating (administrative) costs are a tiny fraction of expenditures. For Social Security, they’re 0.6% and for Medicare A, 1.3%. In other words, about 99% of those benefits are delivered in the form of cash payments, either to the beneficiary or to his hospital.
Not all government programs are that efficient. Defense is riddled with corruption. But that’s what liberals would like to reform and the Bolsheviks calling themselves “conservatives” defend to the last breath.
Since you’re just one more troll, I don’t expect you to try to actually discuss the facts, but I post this here so that anyone who reads it will know that “conservatism” is based on shameless lies.
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shrimplate said
Chris is a koolaid-drunken troll. It’s certainly possible that he’s one of those paid operatists who spam websites with their rightwing blather.
Charles II said
I have a hard time telling stupid from evil, Shrimplate.
What I can tell is someone who doesn’t have the courage of their convictions enough to actually debate an issue using verifiable facts.
Danny said
But isn’t Ryan a complete hypocrite? According to his bio, he’s a practicing Roman Catholic. I assume this means he’s never read the Bible. Obviously, he’s a follower of Ayn Rand and not a follower of Jesus Christ. It’s impossible to be both.
Ryan, as an individualist rather than as a collectivist, insists that taxing is taking money from those who have earned it. Did Lehman Bros. earn their money? Did Angelo Mozzilo earn his money? The Wall Street crash was more a matter of the middle class getting ripped off than onyone “earning” any money. Also, in many cases of large accumulations of wealth, public resources are looted. There are many cases of mining and fisheries wealth where public resources were clearly taken because of a lack of government regulation. Is this earning the money? And, if you’re going to have a decent society, you need a police force, fire department, prisons, health care, education, etc. The French Revolution provided enough evidence that inequity in a society leads to misery and violence.
Anyone that really believes that Ayn Rand’s objectivism is a solution for anything has never studied history. Paul Ryan and others need to dig deeper and understand that what they are advocating is immoral.
Charles II said
Asking whether any Republican is a complete hypocrite is redundant. This is the party that claims to be for balanced budgets but routinely runs enormous deficits. This is the party that claims to be for small government except when it comes to the national security state, tax subsidies for corporations, drugs, abortion, gay rights, and federal pre-emption of state laws to benefit their wealthy contributors.
Republican = hypocrite. Republican = liar. Republican = thief.
Danny said
Also, Ayn Rand’s (and Paul Ryan’s) individualism is inherently flawed. Henry Ford realized that, in order to sell many of his cars, it was necessary to have a relatively well off middle class to buy the cars. This is why he wanted his workers to be well paid. Capitalism is obviously useless without consumers that can afford products and services. So individualism is an absurd notion. We, as a society, must all work together to benefit all to make the system work. Rand’s philosophy as depicted in “Atlas Shrugged” saw the workers, and people in general, as leeches, and viewed the business owners as heroes. But in the real world, where would Bill Gates be without Microsoft’s employees, and without a society set up as consumers with PC’s on every desk?
KenChimp said
What is inherently flawed is the line of reasoning put forth in this blog: Ayn Rand was against Social Security, ergo her collecting Social Security is hypocritical.
Anyone who pays into the Federal Social Security system is entitled to collect from it…BY LAW. Ayn Rand didn’t make the law, she advocated for repealing laws forcing Americans to pay into it. I’m an individualist, yes. But if I am FORCED to pay into Social Security, you’re damned right I will draw from it! Because Social Security is a forced mandate of law, it is ridiculous that someone would tout Rand’s or Ryan’s collection from it as being hypocritical.
It is this compulsory collectivist mind-set that Rand (and Paul Ryan) speak out against.
No other human, no group or nation on this planet has ANY right to the fruits of the labor of any individual. That is the individualist mind-set. It is as simple as that. I challenge any of you to successfully refute that statement.
Charles II said
KenChimp says: “No other human, no group or nation on this planet has ANY right to the fruits of the labor of any individual. ”
You folks make it so easy.
Example: you are a ten year old child. Your parents are providing you with a warm place to sleep, food, clothing, and some degree of education. You decide that you are going to take advantage of that by refusing to do any chores to assist the household; in fact, you decide that you are going to do whatever the h–l you want, even if it inconveniences everyone else. That is the Randian individualist mind set. The well-deserved spanking that narcissistic little boy gets is what Randians call “socialism” and everyone else calls “just deserts. ”
Just as there is a sick, Randian individualism, there is a healthy individualism, in which a person asserts a right to what it earns, but also recognizes the many unearned benefits that he/she has received and therefore willingly accepts a responsibility to return those benefits. Those benefits include: whatever learning and wisdom the human race has accumulated, whatever infrastructure previous generations have provided, whatever natural beauty and clean environment remains, the nurture provided by parents, the nurture that will be provided when the individual becomes old or sick, the system of law that establishes the civilization that allows the individual to do more than be prey or predator, and more. Christians call all unearned gifts charis or “grace”. Randians are, by their morally ill natures, incapable of understanding grace.
Thus the sickness of Randianism is not the result of a desire for a fair return on effort. It is the result of taking it to pathological extremes, to the point that Randians are incapable of understanding the suffering of other human beings that their lack of grace and gratitude creates. This is why Ayn Rand idolized William Edward Hickman, a man who kidnapped, murdered, and dismembered a 12 year old girl. She saw these as acts of supreme individualism, and described Hickman as superior to the rest of society. This is Randian individualism: the “right” to torture and murder, because all that matters is power. Shocking, yes, but true: the facts are here and here.
MEC said
In that case, stay off the roads, because a lot of other people besides you helped to pay for them and you have no right to use the parts you didn’t pay for.
And stop using my share of the public utilities, too!