I think that the only thing meaningful I could add to this great thread and great conversation is to point out, that at the end of the day, all that objectivism is and ever will be is a rationalization for greed in a magical way that never understands that resources have limits, that there is a wheel that turns in the world and that duty and love are the only thing that matters.

Rand’s magical world needs to be powered by a limitless source of energy. Without the panacea technologies she buries as an afterthought in her writings, the whole facade comes down. But so much worse than that, is that objectivists have this sociopathic delusion that they are all ubermenschen. Their narcissistic egos believe that the world exists to serve them and that any accomplishment they have came from their own hands without any help from anyone, or circumstance, or God. They see other humans as abstractions, not people and certainly not as those to be loved, served or protected. The only ones who matter are themselves, in a sick view that teh benefits of the social contract are there for them only, but that they have no duties at all to contribute. And why would they? People are not real to them and there is no existence but them.

This is the core of the far right businessman who thinks that there is nothing wrong with destroying the environment irreversibly or using child labor. They just simply are not wired to care about any consequence outside of their immediate gratification. It is sociopathy in a very pure form.