Ryano misrepresents Objectivism, perhaps wilfully. A more accurate, based on what Ayn Rand actually wrote, rendition of the analogy is:
- Milk exists but not in a readily usable form (i.e. the cheese triangle). (Analogous to Rand's assertion that your life is given to you but it is up to you to maintain it)
- The goal of life is to produce as many cheese triangles as possible, and trade them for other dairy products such as yogurt. (Analogous to Rand's assertion that man's survival depends on his ability and freedom to exercise his productive ability and control the results thereof. Read anything that Rand wrote, it's all about productivity being the highest goal, not consumption as Ryano claims).
- Any action anyone takes to prevent you from producing, trading or consuming your own cheese triangles, or any other dairy product you have received in exchange for your triangles is, punishable by force up to and including the amount of force that person attempted to use against you. (See Atlas Shrugged, in which Rand's characters learn to deal with people by their ethical system, i.e. use force only against people who use force against you).
- If you can get somebody stupid to give you two cheese triangles for one of yours, then repeatedly perform the swap until he has one cheese triangle left. Then try and persuade him to give you his last triangle. There is nothing wrong in doing this because he is an adult and responsible for his own decisions, however bad they may be. (See point 1).
Whether you agree or disagree that this is the way to live your life is irrelevant; Ryano's
analogy is a bad one because it does not accurately represent the concepts it is trying to communicate. See
critique of objectivism.