QUORA: 'How do fans of Ayn Rand's work feel about the fact that she used social security?'

QUORA *: ‘How do fans of Ayn Rand's work feel about the fact that she used social security and Medicare in her old age?’

I posted this answer:

The question implies that those programs are voluntary. They are not.

Like everyone else (me included), Rand “used” Social Security and Medicare** because she was forced into it, by law--which means, at governmental gunpoint. As with any tax, if you evade your Social Security and Medicare taxes, you’ll be arrested, fined, and probably thrown in a cage. The fact that we Americans are forced into these programs by our own government, the very government that we should be able to count on to protect our rights to act on our own judgement and protect our property from thieves, is precisely what makes Social Security and Medicare immoral and in need of being phased out and abolished, as a matter of justice.

Justice also demands that a person should get what she pays for, even if the payment is forced. So regardless of what a person’s opinion is of Social Security and Medicare, anyone who pays FICA taxes is morally and rightfully as well as legally entitled to collect the promised benefits as long as these programs exist.

It is fully consistent, morally and logically, to “use” Social Security and Medicare while simultaneously expressing opposition. Both positions are based on justice. This view is also consistent with Ayn Rand’s work, given that justice is considered in her philosophy of Objectivism to be a cardinal virtue.

* [Quora is a social media website founded by two former Facebook employees. According to Wikipedia:

Quora is a question-and-answer website where questions are created, answered, edited and organized by its community of users. The company was founded in June 2009, and the website was made available to the public on June 21, 2010.[3]Quora aggregates questions and answers to topics. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to other users' answers.[4]

You can also reply to other users’ answers.]

** [I’m assuming for argument's sake that Rand actually did apply for and collect Social Security and Medicare benefits. If she did not, she should have.]

SUPPLEMENTAL:

Note to those who accuse Rand and others who conscientiously object to these programs while collecting the promised benefits of being hypocritical: To claim the right to force people into submission to your values, and then denounce them for objecting, is vicious and unjust, not to mention comical. But, hey, smears and insults and intimidation are always the last resort of those who can’t rationally refute the substance of the arguments against.

Related Reading:

The Social Security Injustice

Social Security and the "Hypocrisy" Charge