I want to archive your comment and bring it up again next time there's a discussion of Rand on HN. Musk is her idea of a businessman-hero (yes, government loans notwithstanding... he doesn't have the luxury of playing in a free market to begin with, energy is already highly regulated and subsidized), not the current crop of Wall Street bankers.
Actually, I didn't intend to discuss Rand. I just wanted to use an example of some characters that she created. I'm surprised people get immediately worked up once Ayn Rand gets mentioned.
A lot of people who read and talk about her works turn in to (or reveal themselves as) babbling idiots, so it's easy to mistakenly associate the babbling idiocy with her. From what I've read, she was much more pragmatic than the angry anti-government types who glom on to objectivism.
Love Rand or hate her, she was one of the few authors that glorified successful people instead of vilifying them. Objectivist principles may not be perfect, but they are a far healthier base for society than "you didn't build that".
Simplistic moralizing is problematic whether it's pro/anti government, corporation, or anything else. I don't know if Ayn Rand's writing is like that since I can't stay awake through all the exposition, but it seems like a lot of simple-minded people love her books.
The "you didn't build it" thing kind of makes my point for me, but I don't want to just call you an idiot and move on since I might be misunderstanding your intent. The speaker had a long, well-presented message with that one line that became a slogan for the more idiotic of anti-government talking heads and their followers, and it's a gross mis-representation of the truth to present it without context [1]:
"There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me – because they want to give something back. They know they didn't – look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something – there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)"
"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business – you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."
"The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don't do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires."
You are of course free to disagree, but at least show the basic respect of not misrepresenting the statement or the people who agree with the overall message. Yes, it sounds a lot like he meant it as he worded it in the heat of the moment--by many accounts, he often goes off-script--but you can't possibly believe he meant it the way it's been taken given the speech that surrounded it.
