Rand's ideas about economics were screwed up because her life set her up to look at America as an almost ideal country, and she had to rationalize somehow when she found this was the case.(For those who aren't acquainted with Ayn Rand's life experiences, she lived through the Russian Revolution, equating, as most people do, "communism" with bloodshed, oppression, and forced collectivism: cornerstones of the USSR. She escaped from the country to come to America, where she promptly lived the American Dream by starting out at the bottom and quickly earning a handsome salary in Hollywood. She married the man of her dreams and went on to become one of the most famous and controversial authors of her time. With a life like this, wouldn't you see nothing but evil in "collectivism" and nothing but purity and happiness in capitalism?)
I love Ayn Rand, not for these twisted ideals of individualism and capitalism, but for her expression of freedom. Had her life been lived conversely- she grows up in the slums of America, is brutalized by cops, and moves to Cuba to write about the joys of collectivism- her writings still would have expressed, if we can assume that she has a "soul" which remains constant in its desires, an unfailing love of freedom, and a burning desire for liberation. I'd recommend that you read "The Fountainhead" and "Anthem", to be inspired, and then "Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal", to challenge your perception of economic truth.
