NOTE: The purpose of this video is to explain why Rand’s ideas are mocked & rarely taken seriously, NOT why they are wrong. If you are looking for a systematic analysis of her work, please examine the SEP link below.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on Ayn Rand, one of the most detailed & evenhanded articles on the substance of her work - http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ayn-rand/
The SEP’s entry on Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy - http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/#GooWilMorWorDut
The SEP’s entry on Logical Positivism - http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logical-empiricism/
A searchable online repository of Rand’s writings (including all quotes cited here) - https://www.aynrand.org
Branden’s retrospective personal statement regarding the character of Rand, her philosophy, & her “collective” - http://www.starways.net/lisa/essays/benefits1.html
The Partially Examined Life does a very charitable reading & conservative rebuttal of many of Rand’s philosophical works - http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2013/07/01/ep78-ayn-rand/
The evolutionary origin of human hyper-cooperation (an observation of the role of altruism in evolutionary biology that prima facie refutes many of Rand’s claims) - http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5747
Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain - http://www.rifters.com/real/articles/NatureNeuroScience_Soon_et_al.pdf
My video on Logical Positivism - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EebMeEo91c
Regarding Rand’s Medicare benefits: it is true that she published works exonerating objectivists who wanted to collect money from social welfare programs as “restitution.” (See: http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/government_grants_and_scholarships.html )
However, according to Evva Pryor, the social worker assigned to Rand who eventually enrolled her in these programs, Rand was staunchly opposed to the idea of collecting Medicare at first, before Pryor convinced her to take it (citing enormous hospital bills, which I find a decent argument for socialized or heavily regulated medicine). (See: https://goo.gl/Z61bmr )
I’m a big fan of people who can reverse their opinions on issues, but for an action which seems so near the heart of Rand’s ideology to be subject to such a reversal of opinion seems counter to the idea that it is a perfectly rigorous system not subject to whim. As with the rest of this video, this is not meant to be a refutation of it or a critique of Rand’s followers, merely an exploration as to why it is the subject of much ridicule.