Altruism and the Welfare State

In an essay critical of the campaign platform of senator george m overn, Rand bemoaned policies that erected arbitrary barriers to any one's pursuit of happiness. She wroteq, morally and economically, the welfare state creates an ever accelerating downward pull. Since need, not achievement, is held as the criterion of rewards, the government necessarily keeps sacrificing the more productive groups to the less productive,. gradually chaining the top level of the economy, then the next level, then thenext.