The next major virtue that Rand identifies is productiveness. In certain respects, the propriety of productiveness seems quite natural, for it is difficult to dispute the value of productiveness to human life. Yet productiveness is rarely named among the moral virtues. Although people do sometimes laud “industry” and while sloth is one of the seven deadly sins of Christianity, in the eyes of many, the very usefulness of productiveness excludes it from the realm of morality; productiveness seems too prudential a concern to warrant morality's attention. Even those who recognize the utility of productiveness do not necessarily embrace it, simply for its practical payoffs. As Robert Solomon has observed, if we can believe bumper stickers, the preferred attitude in many quarters is, “I'd rather be fishin.'”

Rand contends that productiveness is essential to human life. Indeed, she argues that productive work should be the central purpose of a person's life. After explaining what productiveness is, why it is a virtue, and what it demands, in practice, I will also consider whether Rand's egoistic defense of productiveness sanctions greed, which is widely considered a vice.

WHAT PRODUCTIVENESS IS

Productiveness is “the process of creating material values, whether goods or services.” A bit more abstractly, Peikoff characterizes productiveness as “the adjustment of nature to man,” for it is the process by which a person transforms elements of his surroundings to serve specific, life-furthering purposes.