• @zokr
    link
    210 months ago

    and on welfare at the end of her life.

    You are just repeating what others have stated online without looking into this claim yourself.

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ayn-rand-social-security/

    She took Social Security and Medicare benefits. She also paid into those. She also paid taxes.


    It is morally defensible for those who decry publicly-funded scholarships, Social Security benefits,

    and unemployment insurance to turn around and accept them, Rand argued, because the government

    had taken money from them by force (via taxes). There’s only one catch: the recipient must regard the

    receipt of said benefits as restitution, not a social entitlement.


    If she paid into Social Security and Medicare and paid taxes then what is the issue? The paragraph above states

    that she did not believe her actions to be hypocrisy because she had paid taxes.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      2110 months ago

      I think everyone understands that people are dicked over and have to participate in the system as it is. However, if you’re going to be the poster child for why meat is murder or how god is fake or how public assistance is evil, it’s also not unfair for people to think you’re a hypocrite if they find you eating a turkey leg, preaching in church or taking public assistance.

    • @buddascrayon
      link
      1710 months ago

      She was hypocritical because she thought Medicare and Social Security shouldn’t exist. And was extremely vocal about it. Yet she took them anyhow.

      Also, those programs aren’t some kind of retirement savings plan. The money you pay into Social Security today gets paid out to those who are receiving it today. The first people to ever receive Social Security and Medicare never paid a dime into it because it didn’t exist while they were in the workforce.

      We need to stop thinking about how the taxes we pay in directly benefits us. Taxes pay to keep our government and society functioning on an even keel. It isn’t a pay in and get your kicks out system. And when people like Ayn Rand go about criticizing it as if it’s a travesty that they had to pay taxes so that other people can live comfortable lives they are showing what kind of self serving fanatics they are.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet
      link
      English
      710 months ago

      There’s only one catch: the recipient must regard the receipt of said benefits as restitution, not a social entitlement.

      Oh, so magic thought games change the nature of reality. Got it!