• • • Ayn Rand and Karl Marx 
Hal G.P. Colebatch, American Spectator Altruism  |Individualism  | Ayn Rand was a crank. It is neither desirable nor possible to swallow the whole of her message, even assuming it was consistent. She was, like Marx, one of the “great simplifiers” that Edmund Burke warned against, and her work has more in common with that of Marx than the disciples of either should feel comfortable about. The best of what she had to say was said more elegantly and intelligently by Adam Smith in the 18th century, by von Hayek in “The Road to Serfdom,” or any number of other writers in the classic economic tradition.   Published: 2011-06-07