Pure fantasy

Amesh A. Adalja defends Ayn Rand in his Nov. 5 letter (“Ayn Rand’s Beliefs”) by repeating her misguided notion that protection of “individual rights” is the only regulation needed to ensure a civil society.

If only that were true. In that world, there would be no need for OSHA to make sure workplaces were safe because individual business owners would do that, and no workers would ever be burned or crushed to death because of greed. There would be no need for FDA or USDA inspectors to ensure our food was safe, because companies would never knowingly sell bad food or pharmaceuticals to save a few dollars.

There would be no need for the NTSB, the FAA or FHA because our roads, trucks, ships, airplanes, bridges and highways would all be safe and free of fault, and we’d never have to inspect our vehicles or investigate the cause of another deadly accident. We wouldn’t need the EPA or the DEP because no factory would ever spout noxious fumes into the air or dump poison into our rivers. There would be no need for the CYS because all parents would behave responsibly and no child would ever be in danger of abuse, starvation or neglect.

There would be no need to regulate Wall Street, or the banking industry, because their relentless pursuit of wealth would make all of our lives better — just as it did in 2008. What a world that would be. What a fantasy. R.J. HUFNAGEL

Emsworth