"When a man trades with others, he is counting -- explicitly or implicitly -- on their rationality, that is: on their ability to recognize the objective value of his work. (A trade based on any other premise is a con game or a fraud.) Thus, when a rational man pursues a goal in a free society, he does not place himself at the mercy of whims, the favors or the prejudices of others; he depends on nothing but his own effort: directly, by doing objectively valuable work -- indirectly, through the objective evaluation of his own work by others."
-Ayn Rand