Bioshock isn&#x27;t really a critique of Objectivism. Part of Ayn Rand&#x27;s philosophy as demonstrated in her books is that charity and philanthropy are used as PR stunts to cover up some nefarious deeds, like Bernie Madoff donating millions of other people&#x27;s money to charity.<p>The first half of the game sets up the Founder Capitalist Figure as villan, and the second half portrays him as victim to a Bootlegger&#x2F;Baptist Figure. I haven&#x27;t read her stuff, but I seem to recall this plot being closer to a re-enactment, based second hand descriptions of the books. The later games do a somewhat better job though.<p>In that light, he is absolutely buying the loyalty of his employees, and being a private company, we really have no idea how sustainable the system really is. Worse, these things are path dependent. Getting a raise from 28k-&gt;32k will feel a lot different than going from 28k-&gt;70k-&gt;32k, even though the end state is the same. This is the sort of thing that can wreck companies.