[quote=CONCHO]Dave, you missed the third flaw. Some people are sociopathic cheaters, and many of them never get caught or punished. Also, the personalities that cheat gravitate towards positions of power and, over time, the levers of power become concentrated in the hands of sociopathic cheaters. This is the big failing of communism, too. The fact that Bernie Madoff and Ken Lay bilked people out of billions isn’t a fault of capitalism, it’s a fault of certain sociopathic humans. Laws and enforcement are unfortunate necessities to ensure that as many of the cheaters as possible get caught. Laissez-Faire systems could only work if people were angels, but then of course communism would work great if everyone were angels too.
Why does anyone think that *any* system thought up by flawed human beings could ever be perfect? Didn’t they pay attention in Sunday school?[/quote]
Actually I think that Ayn Rand recognized that there were sociopathic cheaters – as you call them – among us. And she recognized, as you do, that such folks seek out positions of power. I think she believed that such folks would have a much harder time lording over the masses under capitalism than under communism, which I think is largely, although not completely, correct. Certainly many of the socialistic characters in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead were sociopathic power seekers. So, I don’t think the presence of this human trait was completely lost on her.
