 Both points are well-taken. But what if the employer is not rational and gives the job to the somewhat less qualified applicant because, say, he reminds the employer of his long-lost brother? Or, what if the two candidates are equally qualified, and the hiring committee chooses one over the other by tossing a coin? In both cases there is a conflict of interests between two rational applicants. Rand raises the first possibility, that of the irrational employer, but doesn’t trace its implications for her thesis that rational interests don’t conflict. The second possibility, that of two equally qualified candidates, she does not consider at all. Rand would be on firmer ground if she were to argue that there is no necessary conflict between rational interests, that is, that it is not in their nature to conflict. When they conflict, it is due to contingent factors, such as only one job for two equally qualified people. In any case, a conflict between rational interests does not entail a conflict between rights, since, as Rand herself points out, neither party has a right to the job.