She argued against altruism and said it's bad. I believe she misunderstood altruism. It is also good for the individual in a Socratic sense of advancing the general good.
Ayn Rand wrote in an era when monolithic communism was an empirical threat. She had a good business sense and knew what side her bread was buttered on. Her's was anti-communism for the common CEO.
One could use the military for countless examples of self sacrifice for the good of the team. Selfishness does not play at all well in team sports, reducing global warming and social activities that require mass action prompted by emergent circumstances.
Basically she misunderstood the idea of the general good and how one gets a society to advance. Maybe it's an explanation for massive public debt created by selfishness in several levels.
One needs moderation in pursuit of self-interest sometimes as a sort of reciprocal or coefficient of keeping the political economy health. Plainly if public interests repress individual interests pervasively and arbitrarily society too, and the general good will suffer.
Sacrificing others isn't altruism. Personal egoism may be the most materially effective outlook for an individual yet it borders on being sociopathic.
Teamwork benefits by self-sacrifice. I met a medal of honor recipient once who had a day off and choose to get on a helicopter to go help rescue his friends when he learned they were surrounded by the enemy. He was shot and stabbed about 20 times in conducting a defense while loading his platoon on evacuation helos. Most of the Medal of Honor recipients were saving lives, so sure I believe that valor is a virtue as Socrates might have stipulated. God sacrificed his Son so those that have faith in him could be saved and have eternal life.
Ayn Rand worked hard during the Cold War to support freedom yet the virtue of selfishness can add a lot of positive spin to bad political and social ethics.
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