I will admit that Rand is high melodrama, that kind of literature where the characters have names similar to their personality characteristics, like in Shakespeare. She never pretended to be anything other than a Romantic writer.

She may have felt that using a brickbat to get her points across was necessary, considering the huge tide she was bucking in making businessmen heroes. More likely it was a heavy dose of genetic Russian Literature. Anyway, I liked the book. Wish it had been written a few years later so it could have had some environmentalists in it... ;)

Try and remember a modern movie or television show where a corporation or a big businessman was a good guy. Heck, try and remember one where the businessman wasn't a murderous crook. Go ahead...I'll get a cup of coffee.