It's certainly not hypocritical if you use as Rand's premise, "maximising one's personal gain is the only good."
However, arguing for the superiority of minarchist/anarchocapitalist societies while suckling at the teat of the nanny state certainly strikes those of us who don't accept the above premise as hypocritical. Rand wasn't using Social Security and Medicare out of a principled stand, but out of dire personal need... a strong argument against the superiority of minimialist/anarchocapitalist society.
-- Steve's a strong believer in social safety nets, because one can be more creative and innovative when a single failure doesn't lead to utter destruction. You get greater successes when rewarding successes than you do when penalising failures.
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However, arguing for the superiority of minarchist/anarchocapitalist societies while suckling at the teat of the nanny state certainly strikes those of us who don't accept the above premise as hypocritical. Rand wasn't using Social Security and Medicare out of a principled stand, but out of dire personal need... a strong argument against the superiority of minimialist/anarchocapitalist society.
-- Steve's a strong believer in social safety nets, because one can be more creative and innovative when a single failure doesn't lead to utter destruction. You get greater successes when rewarding successes than you do when penalising failures.