You cannot deal with questions of society as if it was mathematical equations. What is the correct answer? 42 😜

Human society, and human existence has no purpose other than the one we give it ourselves. There is not "right" way to organize society. Not in the scientific sense.

It is a value question. It is a question of what sort of society do you want. What do you value. When humans can decide on that then they can begin to apply rational reasoning to determine how such a society can be built.

Now... let us assume the goal is maxium well being, happiness, freedom etc for as many humans as possible without undue suffering for a minority. How do you do that.

It seems pretty evident that Ayan Rand's ideas would never work, if you actually apply logic. Ayan Rand did not know game theory, as developed by mathematician John Nash. Examples like the prisoners dilemma shows how systems based on individualistc selfish behavior is frequently suboptimal, for the goal of optimal outcome for society as a whole.

Nor did she consider the problem of information assymetry in the market. The problem of planned obsolence.

Nor did she know what Thomas Piketty showed with overwhelming evidence that large fortunes tend to grow faster than small ones. This is such an iron law of economics, that inequality is bound to expand until it reaches levels where society become polarized and destabilized. Next you got violence and revolutions on your hand.

It is why I am a social democrat, because I believe most empirical evidence points to social democracy being the most stable form of government capable of countering these sort of destabilizing forces, while at the same time giving propserity and freedom to citizens.

And it is a value judgement. I believe a society has to be judged by the conditions of the lesser among us. In this regard social democracy has outcompeted all other systems.

However if your values are different, you may reach different conclucions. It is not necessarily the system that leads to the fastest GDP growt, if that is what somebody values above all else.