Ayn Rand

Collectivism- a belief that everyone should have ownership over land
Individualism- by ones self.
Socialism-goods and services controlled by the government
Capitalism-when someone or a corporation controls production and distribution.
Communism-a theory that defines no private ownership.


In both of Ayn Rand's essays she explained the background of rights. She explained in the essay titled "Man's Rights" that everyone has rights and they are entitled to them. In the essay "Collectivized Rights" what I got out of it was that no group could have rights but the individuals in the group could.(collectivized rights, Rand). She opened up a whole new subject that is rarely touched on.

The two essays in comparison both have the citizens in mind. "Thus, for every individual, a right is the moral sanction of a positive—of his freedom to act on his own judgment, for his own goals, by his own voluntary, uncoerced choice. As to his neighbors, his rights impose no obligations on them except of a negative kind: to abstain from violating his rights."(mans rights, Rand). This meant that every one person had their own rights and no one could take that away from them. "Any group or “collective,” large or small, is only a number of individuals. A group can have no rights other than the rights of its individual members." This meant to me the same as individual rights but adding that no group can have rights, only the people partcipating in it even if that meant signing over their rights if they were a criminal.

I agree totally with Ms.Rand's essays. She made a strong argument and backed up all of her information by giving examples. She explains things in a new light because most people never really know exactly how to differentiate between the rights of themselves and what they are entitled to and the rights of groups.