Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand是自由主義的倡導者，前美國聯儲局主席格林斯平也是她的學生，其小說Atlas Shrugged，講述社會如何利用仁義道德去壓制有能者的成就，荷里活剛剛開拍其電影版，女主角是Angelina Jolie。小說其中一節，說到一位母親，要求其當鋼材企業家的兒子，聘請一事無成的胞弟，企業家拒絕，說胞弟對公司沒有好處，母親直指他冷血、自私和唯利是圖，不顧兄弟之情，罵道: "That's your cruelty, that's what's mean and selfish about you. If you loved your brother, you'd give him a job he didn't deserve, precisely because he didn't deserve it -- that would be true love and kindness and brotherhood. Else what's love for? If a man deserves a job, there's no virtue in giving it to him. Virtue is the giving of the undeserved."企業家聽罷，嚇呆了，然後說: "Mother, you don't know what you're saying. I'm not able ever to despise you enough to believe that you mean it." Rand認為，人應該為自己的利益發揮自己的所長，就是對社會最大的貢獻，過程中，物質回報是必須的，這樣才令付出和接受者活得有尊嚴。