He replies that he wants to afford the price of admission to heaven, and James Taggart arrogantly replies that "virtue is the price of admission." Mr. D'Anconia then said, "That's what I want to say...I want to be prepared to claim the greatest virtue of all: I was a man who made money." According to Mr. d'Anconia's remark, he understood from an early age that money is only the happy result of work and, on page 100, he says: "There is nothing important in life except how you do your job.” Thus, the virtues acquired through work manifest themselves in the physical form of money. He compares "all the codes of ethics" that others issue to paper money, and says that "the code of competence is the only system of mortality that is on a gold standard" (100). Paper money is notoriously unstable without the backing of the gold standard, and his remark suggests that, like paper money, any code of mortality other than that of competence does not stand up to the rigors of life. A person's competence in dealing with the world is reflected in his or her ability to make money. Francisco d'Anconia reiterates this idea in his statement on page 411: "Wealth is the product of man's ability to