Agreed. Get the government out of the welfare business.

Agreed, but it goes beyond Minnesota. All government "altruism" is just outright theft. It's all vote buying, money laundering, and virtue signalling using a government blackjack on taxpayers.

The "altruism" in Minnesota is just outright theft. Forced taxes have gone to scum. A tax is not voluntary, it is extortion on a massive scale. You can bet those crooks have been aided and abetted by scum officials with their noses in the trough, and all getting rich by ripping off taxpayers. I say "taxpayers", meaning all who actually work for a living or are retired from working. Giving by choice is just that, a choice made voluntarily. That is the only moral form of altruism

Eg. see
- Galt's Gulch graphic featured on the All In Podcast, one of the most influential podcasts in the world
.. posted by BrettRocketSci. 7 1/2 hours ago.

$24B on homeless programs!
My guess is maximum altruism benefit would be around $0.5B spending.
Maximum socio-economic benefit at around $50m for water, wastewater, law enforcement at the sites.

Rand realized that the pervasive morality of altruism was not solely religious.
Yes, good point. So many advocates of altruism are pushing for power and influence - for themsleves. I am reading about Malthus at the moment. He explains how welfare can help a few individuals but works to the detriment of the poor, handicapped, unlucky and everyone else in general.

Correct, Rand was all about Capitalism and those that understand put that on our list of things to conserve; but what pisses me off is when people that truly don't get it and even some that do, (if they thought about it) jump on the Sacrifice/non sacrifice bandwagon.
I like to put it this way using Rand's own words, just spelled correctly (laughing): It's Not "Selfishness". It's CELFishness. Every cell in the body is totally responsible for it's own survival and Happiness and once those needs and desires are met, the value is automatically passed on. Much like bending over backwards to share the food you made with someone that drops in at supper time. That, in my observation is a part of being Human as apposed to being Humanoid, (Human-Void).
That is not to say that anyone can't sacrifice what ever they want (so long as it does not harm others). That, just like free speech should be conserved as a right and not a requirement>

One can be both conservative and libertarian without being Objectivist. Donway's essay outlines Ayn Rand's moral case for capitalism succinctly. For a more complete treatment of the moral case for capitalism, I recommend dbhalling's Pendulum of Justice (https://www.amazon.com/Pendulum-Justi.... It makes me realize how long it has been since we saw dbhalling and khalling in the Gulch.

https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...

https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...

https://capitalismmagazine.com/2019/0...