Ayn Rand Should Be On the New Ten Dollar Bill

Story here, if you haven’t caught wind yet.

Right now there are obvious choices being talked about: Susan B. Anthony (universal suffrage is silly), Eleanor Roosevelt (wife of a former head bureaucrat) or local favorite: Rachel Carson (malaria lover).

I personally have little interest in who is picked save for one reason. However, these items listed below might appeal to the sensibilities of normal people who consider it important.

1. She loved America, a lot.
2. She loved money, a lot.
3. She was an example of the Great American Dream.
4. She wrote books set in America that are popular to this day.
5. She was heavily rooted in Aristotle, whose philosophy helped form the basis for the West’s intellectual and political tradition.
6. She became famous for something other than good looks.

I’d like to see Ayn Rand on the bill, or at least seriously considered, because the ensuing tornado of outrage storming through social media accounts would be terrifying and entertaining. The emotional froth would spill in from nearly every corner of the Internet, from people of every political and moral persuasion—no one really likes Rand all that much except for objectivists, and only place you’ll find an objectivist is under a rock or somewhere alone, taking themselves very, very seriously.

EDIT: Not that I considered this an original idea, but I didn’t think Time would have written about the same idea yesterday, and the top Google result for “ayn rand $10” is another blogger. Can’t wait for the TwitterInstaBook sphere to catch wind and rev up the outrage engines.