• • Ten books that I recommend 
Jason Pye, United Liberty Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Capitalism  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (Ayn Rand). You’re probably asking, “What about Atlas Shrugged?” It’s a favorite of mine as well, but Rand and other authors of essays in the book take a much harder look in this book at laissez-faire, property rights and morality and how to discuss capitalism with statists.     Share on Facebook

• • Falling on hard times 
Rashmee Roshan Lall, Times of India Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Capitalism  Nearly half a century ago, Ayn Rand would rail about the promise of an impossible “right” to economic security for all. This Russian Jewess, who fiercely held to the individualist and laissez faire capitalist beliefs of her adopted American homeland, denounced the “right to economic security” as an infamous attempt to abrogate the concept of rights. She argued that it could mean only one thing: a promise to enslave the men who produce, for the benefit of those who don’t. In Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, she wrote, “If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labour.” Rand, controversial though she is, might be half the prophet Europe needs today.     Share on Facebook

• • • Finding capitalism’s human side 
Hannah Naiditch, San Gabriel Valley Tribune (CA) Altruism  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  The Fountainhead  The Virtue of Selfishness  Capitalism  Egoism  Inaccurate  Ayn Rand focused on human nature and used it to justify her philosophy. Human nature dictates that man must always act in his own self-interest. She warned that if civilization is to survive, we must reject altruism. She considered altruism incompatible with human nature. Ayn Rand’s philosophy became known as Objectivism. Clubs sprang up across the land where her admirers shared her philosophy. She was a strong believer in pure, unregulated capitalism. Ayn Rand and her philosophy were probably at least partly responsible for our country ending up in dog-eat-dog laissez-faire capitalism. She was part of the move to the political right.     Share on Facebook

• • • Did Greenspan channel or betray Ayn Rand? 
Howard R. Gold, MoneyShow.com Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  The Fountainhead  Capitalism  Personal life  Rand dubbed Greenspan “the undertaker” for his dark clothes and somber mien. And he remained aloof, harboring skepticism about her philosophy for quite a while. She had doubts about him, too. “Rand worried that Greenspan was an opportunist or social climber,” wrote Jerome Tuccille in his 2002 biography, Alan Shrugged. But as a successful businessman (he co-founded his economic consulting firm in the 1950s), “Alan was their only link to the real world outside Ayn Rand’s living room—outside their own imagination,” Tuccille observed. It turned out to be a Faustian bargain.     Share on Facebook

• • Ayn Rand: Misrepresentations 
James Cross, Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI) Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Capitalism  When the tea party’s enthusiasm for Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” became widely publicized, I said to my wife, “Just wait, here come the leftist smears and misrepresentations of Rand’s philosophy.” The letter by Sam Leicht-ling is a blatant example (Opinions, May 31). His claim that Rand would “dismantle all branches of government outside the police and military forces” is demonstrably false. Leichtling conveniently leaves out Rand’s emphasis on the importance of all branches of government, including a judiciary branch governed by the Constitution and objective laws.     Share on Facebook

• • • Garbage and gravitas 
Corey Robin, The Nation Altruism  Atheism  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  The Fountainhead  The Virtue of Selfishness  Capitalism  Personal life  Reviews of Ayn Rand and the World She Made, by Anne C. Heller and Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, by Jennifer Burns.Where Goebbels talked of violence and war, Rand spoke of commerce and trade, production and economy. But fascism is hardly hostile to the heroic individual. That individual, moreover, often finds his deepest calling in economic activity. Far from demonstrating a divergence from fascism, Rand's economic writings register its impression indelibly.     Share on Facebook

• • If America were a free country, immigration would not be a problem 
Deborah B. Sloan, American Thinker Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Why can't we have the honest, rational immigration debate that the left is calling for? The explanation is simple: Openness and honesty will not advance their statist agenda. Ayn Rand elegantly presented this principle in her book Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal: "When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to the advantage of the rational side; when they are not clearly defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the advantage of the irrational side." The truth poses a threat to proponents of tyranny.     Share on Facebook

• • Will religious conservatives hijack the Tea Party movement? 
Harry Binswanger, Capitalism Magazine Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Objectivist author  The phrase "limited government" has suddenly become prominent. This is not exactly an Objectivist term, but Ayn Rand did use it in "The Roots of War," (in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal), and its growing use is a good sign.     Share on Facebook

• • What do Tea Party activists want? 
Bob Beadles, The Examiner Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Capitalism  Apologists for big government tout all of the supposed benefits of big government. They neglect all the problems caused by big government. Those problems include recessions, depressions, unemployment, crime and poverty. In 1959, in an interview with Mike Wallace, Ayn Rand posited that: “A free economy will not break down. All depressions are caused by government interference and the cure that is always offered . . . is more of the same poisons that caused the disasters.”     Share on Facebook

• • Government has duty to promote general welfare 
Bob Fuller, Las Vegas Sun Altruism  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  The Virtue of Selfishness  Carl Parrillo — in his Monday letter to the editor [....] mentions the novel “Atlas Shrugged” as a guide. The author, Ayn Rand, basically contrasted capitalism and communism. She also wrote “Virtue of Selfishness,” a critique of altruism, and “Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal,” an excellent history of economics. In an ideal world, all people would be self-supporting and responsible citizens. In the real world, we have people who cannot reach these goals for a variety of reasons.     Share on Facebook

• • Technology & the changing face of “will and testament” in the age of digital assets 
Sahar Adil, MyBangalore Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  The author Ayn Rand said, “a man's right to the product of his mind” and how it was possible for legal recourse in order protect this “product”, in her book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. As such an idea can only be protected and willed if it is given a material form, and an invention has to be embodied in a physical model before it can be patented; a story has to be written or printed. But what the patent or copyright protects is not the physical object as such, but the idea which it embodies.     Share on Facebook

• • • Atlas shrinks 
Monika Mitchell, OpEdNews Altruism  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Capitalism  Egoism  Personal life  Two centuries after [Adam] Smith's theory went through bumps and starts, rejections and debate, it was embraced with gusto in another fairytale called, Atlas Shrugged, written by former Hollywood screenwriter Ayn Rand. In Rand's lengthy and outdated sci-fi novel, protagonist John Galt is brutally electrocuted by the rulers of the "collective" hoping he will renounce his staunch belief in individualism over altruism. No matter what painful tortures he endures, he never fails to claim the moral superiority of self-interest.     Share on Facebook

• • Progressives hate individual rights 
Stephen Grossman, Standard-Times (New Bedford, MA) Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Objectivist author  When the latest socialist pie-in-the-sky unravels, as it must, progressives gratefully fall into another coma. They awaken, mercifully free of memory and free to plan other peoples' lives again. Throw the bums out! Vote Tea Party. Get "Atlas Shrugged" and "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal."     Share on Facebook

• • Expert answers to the global meltdown 
Abby Wong, The Star (Malaysia) Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Capitalism  Book review: Freefall: America, free markets and the sinking of the world economy, by Joseph E. Stiglitz.What would the late Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, have said about the recent financial crisis and the US government’s massive bailouts of banks and financial institutions? Rand, a strong advocate of laissez-faire capitalism, believed that the government’s role in an economy was to protect individual rights without intervening in the conduct of free market. To the dismay of Rand and her cult believers, the US government, in its efforts to subdue the crisis, has done everything that violates her definition of capitalism. [....] While Rand is no longer present to condemn the mess, Joseph Stiglitz is.     Share on Facebook

• • Is bipartisanship a desirable goal? 
Deborah B. Sloan, American Thinker Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  What compromise could be reached between advocates of government-run health care and those who want the freedom to make their own decisions? No justice could ever be achieved by seeking compromises of this fundamental nature -- compromises of principle. In her book, entitled Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal, Ayn Rand wrote, "In any collaboration between two men (or two groups) who hold different basic principles, it is the more evil or irrational one who wins." In a compromise between life and death, freedom and slavery, good and evil, only the latter group can win. Of course, there are instances in which bipartisanship is appropriate. Specifically, it is appropriate when both parties agree on the essentials and the principles involved, and they compromise where necessary to sort out the particulars. But that is certainly not the case now, when one party is struggling to preserve the semblances of freedom and protection of individual rights in this country, while the other is engaged in a full frontal assault on our freedom, seeking to establish a system of government that is more similar to fascism than capitalism.     Share on Facebook

• • The dissatisfaction of compromise 
Nick Ottens, Atlantic Sentinel Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Image  Machiavelli warned against the practical dangers of seeking compromise. Four hundred and fifty years later, philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982) argued against the righteousness of it. In an article entitled “‘Extremism,’ or The Art of Smearing,” published in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966), Rand declared that, “There can be no compromise on basic principles,” nor, she opined, “on moral issues.” In “The Cashing-In: The Student ‘Rebellion’,” published in the same volume, Rand elaborated. “Contrary to the fanatical belief of its advocates,” she noted, such compromises do not satisfy anyone; they dissatisfy everyone. “Those who try to be all things to all men, end up by not being anything to anyone. And more: the partial victory of an unjust claim, encourages the claimant to try further; the partial defeat of a just claim, discourages and paralyzes the victim.” [....] Rand believed in absolutes and liked to reiterate from her novel Atlas Shrugged (1957) in which she wrote: “There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.”     Share on Facebook

• • Conservative view 
Larry Radtke, News-Press (Fort Myers, FL) Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Capitalism  Re: "Rules for capitalism," Joseph Gormley, Jan. 29. Congratulations to Mr. Gormley for recognizing the hypocrisy of religious conservatives who advocate self interest in economics and self sacrifice in morality. He is dead wrong, however, to believe that our economy has ever been unregulated, that conservatives stand for capitalism, and that Ayn Rand is one of their heroes. In 1957, devout Catholic William F. Buckley, conservative icon and publisher of National Review, published Whittaker Chambers' vicious review of Ayn Rand's newly published "Atlas Shrugged." More recently, John Podhoretz in his The Weekly Standard review of Alan Greenspan's memoir "The Age of Turbulence," denigrated Greenspan's earlier association with Rand. As Federal Reserve chairman, Greenspan himself repudiated the principles of laissez-faire he once shared with Rand, thereby repudiating her philosophy, Objectivism.     Share on Facebook

• • • The winnowing of Ayn Rand 
Roderick Long, Cato Unbound Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  The Fountainhead  Capitalism  Egoism  As for whether the Randian approach successfully crosses the fact-value gap, I would say that identifying X as good for some organism is safely on the “factual,” value-neutral side of the ledger. (A shark’s eating me may be good for the shark, but my recognition of that fact doesn’t, absent further argument, give me any reason to endorse the shark’s doing so.) But once I recognize not only that X is good for some organism, but that I am the organism in question, it’s hard to see how I could reasonably continue to take a value-neutral attitude toward X.     Share on Facebook

• • • Why Ayn Rand? Answers and some questions for discussion 
Douglas B. Rasmussen, Cato Unbound Atheism  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  The Fountainhead  The Virtue of Selfishness  Capitalism  Egoism  It is for Rand both right and a right for individuals to live for their own sakes. The moral standard to be followed is for each individual to live as full and as complete a human life as possible. Each individual human being is an end in him- or herself and has no higher moral purpose. One is certainly not merely a means to the ends of others. This is what Rand meant by speaking of the virtue of “selfishness.” Her purpose in using a term that is normally thought of as a vice to describe her fundamental virtue was to indicate just how profound a paradigm shift is needed in order to defend liberty.     Share on Facebook

• • Financial lessons of the ages 
Doug Wakefield, Safe Haven Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  Capitalism  While some suggest that "fractional reserve" banking does not necessarily foster dishonesty, this essay, from Ayn Rand's 1967 work, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, helps us see that the creation of new money dilutes the value of all money that currently exists: “The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit. They have created paper reserves in the form of government bonds as the equivalent of what was formerly a deposit of gold. In the absences of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value.”     Share on Facebook