November 29, 2017 12:02PM # Eliot Spitzer: “I Hate to Sound Like Ayn Rand, but…” By [Walter Olson](https://www.cato.org/people/walter-olson) --- SHARE Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace after a 2008 scandal, has written a [short essay by way of memoir](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/article/my-new-york-50th-anniversary-issue.html#my-dad) in the recent 50th anniversary issue of New York magazine. As one who’s written [more than my share](https://www.cato.org/blog/eliot-spitzer-seeks-political-comeback) about Spitzer’s abuses of power as governor and attorney general, I wasn’t expecting to feel much sympathy, and mostly I didn’t. But then I got to the last paragraph: > I’m a builder now. Most of what my dad built was on the Upper East Side, because that was the heart of the city. Now it’s Brooklyn. We have a site under construction on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. As a lawyer, as a prosecutor, in politics, there’s a lot of talk. Occasionally things happen. When you’re building, you actually see concrete being poured and curtain wall being applied to the façade. It’s enormously satisfying. I hate to sound like Ayn Rand, but there’s something very rewarding about that tangible productivity. My reaction was: hold that thought! And pursue it further, maybe even to the point where being a builder—or for that matter sounding like Ayn Rand—involves no trace of apology or embarrassment. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).