Rand makes money the end of life, and hates pleasure. She also inspired many awful ideas, like the deregulation of the financial industry which led to the 2008 financial collapse (the FED leader Greenspan had been a direct disciple of Rand who studied at her feet at one point, and had been implementing her ideals). During this financial collapse, Americans lost over 40 % of their life savings to the wolves of Wall Street. Randian ideology favors the billionaires and this is why they are trying to advance it, but the average person will be made miserable by this.
As you said, Rand herself could not live up to her ideals, had to "mooch" off the government towards the end of her life, and was unfaithful to her husband with one of her disciples, who later betrayed her for another woman, and this scandal was quite public and showed how unhinged, unprincipled, and unhappy she was.
With his defense of science and the social contract in Kyriai Doxai, I think Epicurus is a better defender of Western liberal values.
Rand makes money the end of life, and hates pleasure. She also inspired many awful ideas, like the deregulation of the financial industry which led to the 2008 financial collapse (the FED leader Greenspan had been a direct disciple of Rand who studied at her feet at one point, and had been implementing her ideals). During this financial collapse, Americans lost over 40 % of their life savings to the wolves of Wall Street. Randian ideology favors the billionaires and this is why they are trying to advance it, but the average person will be made miserable by this.
As you said, Rand herself could not live up to her ideals, had to "mooch" off the government towards the end of her life, and was unfaithful to her husband with one of her disciples, who later betrayed her for another woman, and this scandal was quite public and showed how unhinged, unprincipled, and unhappy she was.
With his defense of science and the social contract in Kyriai Doxai, I think Epicurus is a better defender of Western liberal values.