Follow-up readings

One of the biggest critics of society's rights as opposed to individual's rights is probably Ayn Rand. In her "Requiem for man" (one of the essays in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal), Rand offers a frontal attack on the 1967 papal encyclical "Populorum Progressio" which called for increased sense of social responsibility.

I think a good way to crystallize a defense of a Christian view of political economy(*) would be to carefully think out a response to Rand's "Requiem for man".

Here is just one quote from Rand's attack on the papal encyclical and on social responsibility:

The kind of sense of life that produced the [papal] encyclical “Populorum Progressio” . . . was not produced by the sense of life of any one person, but by the sense of life of an institution.

The dominant chord of the encyclical’s sense of life is hatred for man’s mind—hence hatred for man—hence hatred for life and for this earth—hence hatred for man’s enjoyment of his life on earth—and hence, as a last and least consequence, hatred for the only social system that makes all these values possible in practice: capitalism. (Requiem for man, 304)

Has anyone read this essay? Can you offer some good points of criticism of this essay?

(*) if there is in fact some "Christian view" that is different from a traditional value based view.