As Bart would say, this book both sucks and blows.

As she makes clear in her interview, self-interest (or selfishness) is not a feature of her system, it is the single guiding value of her system. Self-interest for the sake of everybody getting only and precisely what they supposedly deserve. It is beyond me how one can square that with a system based almost completely on an infinitely selfless sacrifice on behalf of those who didn’t deserve it.

I don’t think Rand would have any problem with Jesus, as long as the charity was done by choice, not force (or the implied force of taxation/regulation).

Rand had a big problem with Jesus (or at least Christianity) and also with charity. Her philosophy is fundamentally incompatible with the gospel because its ethical standard is egoism. That’s the opposite of Christianity and pretty much every religion out there. Rand, of course, was vehemently anti-religion.

That said, I enjoy Rand’s novels very much. She spins a good yarn. I also appreciate her ideas, even though I disagree with many of them. She makes an elegant defense of capitalism. I like her work because it’s provocative. I think it’s brilliant and fatally flawed.

Anyone who wants to take Objectivism seriously should read more about Rand’s own life. It really puts her philosophy into perspective. She practiced what she preached, but she was truly a destructive person. A psychopath who spun a good yarn*.

* With the exception of the last bit of Atlas Shrugged, which was, as Scott B. put it, a big thud.