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by eirini1 2166 days ago
Rand's education was made possible by communists - both monetarily and also by fighting for the right of women to enter higher education. Always deliciously ironic to see.
1 comments

This is an important point and should not be downvoted.

It's not possible to accurately argue "she would have received a better/more efficient education in a free market society" because that's a counterfactual.

In fact, it's probably more likely that she dedicated her whole life to overreacting against socialist economics in her writing precisely because she had been exposed to Stalinism/communism.

I'm having some difficulty understanding your statement:

>"It's not possible to accurately argue "she would have received a better/more efficient education in a free market society" because that's a counterfactual."

Do you mean to say that nobody can ever argue that a historical counterfactual might have been preferable? This would seem to be a rationalization of history, through a refusal to consider alternatives.

Perhaps I can rephrase: it's not possible to test the counterfactual, therefore to know the accuracy of the statement.

Obviously anyone can make any statement/argument, but without the ability to verify it, it doesn't carry much weight.