Ayn Rand philosophy: Good or bad for the self and for society? There is no yes or no to this question.

No, this is not a detailed essay about the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Yes, parts of Rand-like thinking can help individuals to safeguard personal interests. But a government and the society is DIFFERENT from a business. You can NOT run a government like you run a business, even though you can use useful business techniques to implement into government or organizational functions.

This is to present just one snippet of how Randian thinking can hurt society:

"A politician called Medicare and Social Security "third party or socialist-based systems." Or that he  said he wants to privatize them in order to "break the back" of a "collectivist philosophy." “Social Security right now is a collectivist system,” he said. “It’s a welfare transfer system.” More: “Autopilot will bring more government, more collectivism, more centralized government, if we do not succeed in switching these programs and reforming these programs from what some people call a defined benefit system, to a defined contribution system,” he said. “From switching these programs — and this is where I’m talking about health care, as well — from a third party or socialist based system to an individually owned, individually pre-funded, individually directed system.”