He responds that he wants to afford the price of admission to heaven, and James Taggart haughtily responds that "virtue is the price of admission." Mr. D'Anconia then said: "This is what I want to say...I want to be prepared to claim the greatest virtue of all: that I was a man who made money." According to Mr. d'Anconia's observation, he understood from a young age that money is only the happy result of work, and on page 100 he states that "There is nothing important in life, except how well you do your job" . Thus the virtues acquired through work manifest themselves in the physical form of money. He compares “all the ethical codes” that others spout to paper money and states that “the code of competence is the only mortality system that is based on a gold standard” (100). Paper money is notoriously unstable without the backing of the gold standard, and his observation suggests that, like paper money, any mortality code other than that of accrual does not stand up to the rigors of life. One's competence in the world is reflected in one's ability to earn money. Francisco d'Anconia reiterates this idea in his statement on page 411: “Wealth is the product of man's ability to