A letter from Ayn Rand

[RavenSky]

May 22, 1949

Dear Connie:

You are very young, so I don't know whether you realize the seriousness of your action in writing to me for money. Since I don't know you at all, I am going to put you to a test.

If you really want to borrow $25 from me, I will take a chance on finding out what kind of person you are. You want to borrow the money until your graduation. I will do better than that. I will make it easier for you to repay the debt, but on condition that you understand and accept it as a strict and serious business deal. Before you borrow it, I want you to think it over very carefully.

Here are my conditions: If I send you the $25, I will give you a year to repay it. I will give you six months after your graduation to get settled in a job. Then, you will start repaying the money in installments: you will send me $5 on January 15, 1950, and $4 on the 15th of every month after that; the last installment will be on June 15, 1950—and that will repay the total.

Are you willing to do it?

Here is what I want you to think over: Once you get a job, there will always be many things which you will need and on which you might prefer to spend your money, rather than repay a debt. I want you to decide now, in advance, as an honest and responsible person, whether you will be willing and able to repay this money, no matter what happens, as an obligation above and ahead of any other expense.

I want you to understand right now that I will not accept any excuse—except a serious illness. If you become ill, then I will give you an extension of time—but for no other reason. If, when the debt becomes due, you tell me that you can't pay me because you needed a new pair of shoes or a new coat or you gave the money to somebody in the family who needed it more than I do—then I will consider you as an embezzler. No, I won't send a policeman after you, but I will write you off as a rotten person and I will never speak or write to you again.

Now I will tell you why I am so serious and severe about this. I despise irresponsible people. I don't want to deal with them or help them in any way. An irresponsible person is a person who makes vague promises, then breaks his word, blames it on circumstances and expects other people to forgive it. A responsible person does not make a promise without thinking of all the consequences and being prepared to meet them.

You want $25 for the purpose of buying a dress; you tell me that you will get a job and be able to repay me. That's fine and I am willing to help you, if that is exactly what you mean. But if what you mean is: give me the money now and I will repay it if I don't change my mind about it—then the deal is off. If I keep my part of the deal, you must keep yours, just exactly as agreed, no matter what happens.

I was very badly disappointed in Mimi and Marna [Docky]. When I first met Mimi, she asked me to give her money for the purpose of taking an art course. I gave her the money, but she did not take the art course. I supported Marna for a year—for the purpose of helping her to finish high school. She did not finish high school. I will take a chance on you, because I don't want to blame you for the actions of your sisters. But I want you to show me that you are a better kind of person.

I will tell you the reasons for the conditions I make: I think that the person who asks and expects other people to give him money, instead of earning it, is the most rotten person on earth. I would like to teach you, if I can, very early in life, the idea of a self-respecting, self-supporting, responsible, capitalistic person. If you borrow money and repay it, it is the best training in responsibility that you can ever have.

I want you to drop—if you have it in your mind—the idea that you are entitled to take money or support from me, just because we happen to be relatives. I want you to understand very clearly, right now, when you are young, that no honest person believes that he is obliged to support his relatives. I don't believe it and will not do it. I cannot like you or want to help you without reason, just because you need the help. That is not a good reason. But you can earn my liking, my interest and my help by showing me that you are a good person.

Now think this over and let me know whether you want to borrow the money on my conditions and whether you give me your word of honor to observe the conditions. If you do, I will send you the money. If you don't understand me, if you think that I am a hard, cruel, rich old woman and you don't approve of my ideas—well, you don't have to approve, but then you must not ask me for help.

I will wait to hear from you, and if I find out that you are my kind of person, then I hope that this will be the beginning of a real friendship between us, which would please me very much.

Your aunt,

http://the-toast.net/2015/01/12/actual-letter-ayn-rand-wrote-little-girl/

Can we send copies of this letter to every "self-made" capitalist who wants to borrow money (especially when they want to borrow from the government)?

 

[RavenSky]

Dear Miss Smith,

You ask whether I own cats or simply enjoy them, or both. The answer is: both. I love cats in general and own two in particular.

You ask: “We are assuming that you have an interest in cats, or was your subscription strictly objective?” My subscription was strictly objective because I have an interest in cats. I can demonstrate objectively that cats are of a great value, and the carter issue of Cat Fancy magazine can serve as part of the evidence. (“Objective” does not mean “disinterested” or indifferent; it means corresponding to the facts of reality and applies both to knowledge and to values.)

I subscribed to Cat Fancy primarily for the sake of the picture, and found the charter issue very interesting and enjoyable.

http://animalnewyork.com/2014/ayn-rands-actual-letter-cat-fancy/

 

[Metaphor]

I want you to understand right now that I will not accept any excuse—except a serious illness. If you become ill, then I will give you an extension of time—but for no other reason. If, when the debt becomes due, you tell me that you can't pay me because you needed a new pair of shoes or a new coat or you gave the money to somebody in the family who needed it more than I do—then I will consider you as an embezzler. No, I won't send a policeman after you, but I will write you off as a rotten person and I will never speak or write to you again.

$25 and a promise that Auntie Ayn will never speak or write to you again?

Take the money and for goodness's sake don't even think about paying it back!

 

[Nice Squirrel]

We were talking about doing the same thing to clients the other day. While people mean to pay friends back.. ooh look shiny!

 

[maxparrish]

If RavenSky's purpose in posting this letter is to remind self-made capitalists of moral-ethical treatment of others then RS has made enormous progress.

It is an excellent and inspiring letter, one that I should have sent my own "hand-out" relatives before they stiffed me.

 

[untermensche]

There is this attitude.

And there is a better attitude.

Generosity.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

If RavenSky's purpose in posting this letter is to remind self-made capitalists of moral-ethical treatment of others then RS has made enormous progress.

It is an excellent and inspiring letter, one that I should have sent my own "hand-out" relatives before they stiffed me.

I'll remember that when writing your biography. Shall I engrave it on your headstone?

 

[TacticalLoco]

Preachy, arrogant, totally lacking empathy or altruism. A certain recipe for a life with no friends and no family bonds.
You know, more libertarian bull shit. Enjoy.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Preachy, arrogant, totally lacking empathy or altruism. A certain recipe for a life with no friends and no family bonds.
You know, more libertarian bull shit. Enjoy.

It makes you realize that this person never sat back and thought about what kind of world they'd like to build.

 

[Perspicuo]

sincerely,

Das Bitch

 

[Nice Squirrel]

She is preaching responsibility. Key word: "preaching". I'm sure her niece was all like, "Auntie Ayn is being weird again."

 

[Bullmoose Too]

Did Ayn Rand ever repay the people who, at personal risk, helped her leave Russia during the Bolshevik takeover?

 

[Frikki]

Did Ayn Rand ever repay the people who, at personal risk, helped her leave Russia during the Bolshevik takeover?

Or the public librarians that helped her with research for her first book.

 

[Ford]

Did Ayn Rand ever repay the people who, at personal risk, helped her leave Russia during the Bolshevik takeover?

Or the public librarians that helped her with research for her first book.

As the letter makes apparent, Ayn Rand didn't think she owed anybody anything. Not people who may have helped her along the way, not members of her own family. Nobody.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Or the public librarians that helped her with research for her first book.

As the letter makes apparent, Ayn Rand didn't think she owed anybody anything. Not people who may have helped her along the way, not members of her own family. Nobody.

But that one time she held a door open for Winston Churchill? WWII victory all on her, people.

 

[Kharakov]

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Or the public librarians that helped her with research for her first book.

As the letter makes apparent, Ayn Rand didn't think she owed anybody anything. Not people who may have helped her along the way, not members of her own family. Nobody.

Or any ancestors.

The libertarian motto, "I don't owe nobody nothin'"

 

[Medicine Man]

Or the public librarians that helped her with research for her first book.

As the letter makes apparent, Ayn Rand didn't think she owed anybody anything. Not people who may have helped her along the way, not members of her own family. Nobody.

I can't believe the people, who helped her, would have appreciated her preference for the....​

...Pro-Nazi/Pro Master-Race Mindset.
April 10, 2011

*​

"Ayn Rand, of course, was a kind of politicized L. Ron Hubbard—a novelist-philosopher who inspired a cult of acolytes who deem her the greatest human being who ever lived. The enduring heart of Rand’s totalistic philosophy was Marxism flipped upside down. Rand viewed the capitalists, not the workers, as the producers of all wealth, and the workers, not the capitalists, as useless parasites."

 

[maxparrish]

As the letter makes apparent, Ayn Rand didn't think she owed anybody anything. Not people who may have helped her along the way, not members of her own family. Nobody.

Or any ancestors.

The libertarian motto, "I don't owe nobody nothin'"

Not to be confused with the collectivist motto, "You don't know me, but you owe me".

 

[Under the Rose]

What I find interesting is that the niece was virtually unknown to her aunt, yet the amount she was asking to borrow, for a dress, was equal to $247.52 in todays terms. http://www.davemanuel.com/inflation-calculator.php

Now I don't know about you folks, but even one of my immediate siblings would need a pretty good reason for asking big sister for $247.52 cents. I have helped all of my brothers at various times and in considerably larger amounts for items of tangible value. A dress does not fit that criteria for me, personally, although I am aware that articles of clothing of the rich and famous may auction for ridiculous prices.

From my perspective, the aunt took considerable time and effort to try and educate her niece about the manner in which debt enslaves us and limits our future options. To become indebted for something as frivolous as a piece of clothing at such a young age does not set the tone for future personal finance management. Rand remains a controversial figure but she did understand some interesting aspects of the psychology of economics.