Reply #3: Actually, I'm not sure it's hypocrisy...

[regnaD kciN]

Rand was a Grade-A egocentric jerk (not to mention an appallingly-bad novelist), but I don't necessarily think it's hypocritical to collect from government benefit programs into which you've already paid. I mean, she made millions from her novels (no accounting for public taste), and no doubt paid a lot more in withholding than most of us ever will -- as a matter of fact, I'm pretty certain that any benefits she could have collected wouldn't even come close to what she'd paid in. I can easily see how a case can be made for "getting my own money back," particularly with her me-first philosophy. In fact, I suspect she'd reply that refusing to collect your legally-entitled benefits, for which you've already paid, as a matter of "principle" would actually constitute self-sacrifice, which is among the most immoral acts according to her rather-skewed moral compass.