[longshadow]

He didn't base his arguments on the idea that Communism is immoral, etc. He just said that it was broken in that it would fail miserably to accomplish it's ends for various systemic reasons that he explains in great detail.

Well, just for the record, I am an admirer of von Mises, as well as Rand.

There's nothing wrong with a pragmatic indictment of Communism, per se. The trouble is that the pragmatic argument fails if they manage to hold things together (Mainland China comes to mind). Rand, OTOH, provides a powerful moral argument against Communism (or any form of totalitarianism) that is immune to the vulnerabilities of the pragmatic argument.

On balance, I think there's a great deal we can learn from both Rand AND von Mises.

[sasportas]

Every Rand fan I know is a God-hater. Are all you Rand fans atheists also?

I haven't read her, don't think I am going to. Someone here described her book as ...

"atheistic, self-exalted individualist piece of drivel."

That's all I need to know. And she hated Communism? That's like the pot calling the kettle black.

[PuNcH]

Rand, OTOH, provides a powerful moral argument against Communism (or any form of totalitarianism) that is immune to the vulnerabilities of the pragmatic argument.

So would Rand support a "free"(not) trade with communist china?