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Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

by Ayn Rand

3.74 · rating details · 1,176 ratings · 64 reviews

This edition includes two articles by Ayn Rand which did not appear in the hardcover edition: "The Wreckage of the Consensus," which presents the Objectivists' views on Vietnam and the draft; and "Requiem for Man," an answer to the Papal encyclical Progressio Populorum.

Mass Market Paperbound, 416 pages

Published July 15th 1986 by Signet Book (first published January 1st 1967)

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Feb 05, 2010

Sheila rated it

What a book! If the Obama administration would read and heed-- Wow, would we ever have an awesome revival of financial abundance and most importantly, FREEDOM, in our country! Ms. Rand is absolutely brilliant.

I was especially cheering her on with her ideas of privatizing education. The government has no business being in the business or regulation of education.

I didn't agree with everything she said, and I cringed at some of her descriptions of "savages". ...more

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May 12, 2011

Johnrh rated it

I finally finished CAPITALISM: THE UNKNOWN IDEAL by Ayn Rand. I'd been struggling with it, because she writes with a precision and intensity on which my lazy reading style has difficulty focusing. Regardless, she nails it. I'll have to write a book about it sometime. I recommend it.

The first 3 chapters are particularly cogent on individual rights and economic freedom. From Chp. 1:

"Is man a sovereign individual who owns his person, his mind, his life, his work and i...moreI finally finished CAPITALISM: THE UNKNOWN IDEAL by Ayn Rand. I'd been struggling with it, because she writes with a precision and intensity on which my lazy reading style has difficulty focusing. Regardless, she nails it. I'll have to write a book about it sometime. I recommend it.

The first 3 chapters are particularly cogent on individual rights and economic freedom. From Chp. 1:

"Is man a sovereign individual who owns his person, his mind, his life, his work and its products—or is he the property of the tribe (the state, the society, the collective) that may dispose of him in any way it pleases, that may dictate his convictions, prescribe the course of his life, control his work and expropriate his products? Does man have the right to exist for his own sake—or is he born in bondage, as an indentured servant who must keep buying his life by serving the tribe but can never acquire it free and clear?"

THAT is the question, isn't it? And her answer:

"Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned."

CUI - 22. The Cashing-In: The Student "Rebellion", about the 1960's student occupation of Berkeley and the Free Speech Movement is compelling in its applicability to the current occupation of the Wisconsin State House by protesting public workers.

Says Ayn:

"But there is no justification, in a civilized society, for the kind of mass civil disobedience that involves the violation of the rights of others—regardless of whether the demonstrators' goal is good or evil. The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others. Mass disobedience is an assault on the concept of rights: it is a mob's defiance of legality as such.

The forcible occupation of another man's property or the obstruction of a public thoroughfare is so blatant a violation of rights that an attempt to justify it becomes an abrogation of morality. An individual has no right to do a "sit-in" in the home or office of a person he disagrees with—and he does not acquire such a right by joining a gang. Rights are not a matter of numbers—and there can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob."(less)

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Jul 12, 2011

James rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, philosophy, politics

Do I hate the non-fiction, "philosophical" works of Ayn Rand because I disagree with her, or because they're poorly written? Both.

I'm too annoyed by this awful book to go into great detail. So I'm just gonna list some notable things that pretty much speak for themselves:

- She perpetually ties the word welfare to both fascism and communism.

- She posits that the most oppressed people in the United States are not women, blacks, gays, but (wait for it) the ric...more

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Apr 15, 2011

Connor rated it

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal was a(nother) really thought-provoking book from the ever subtle Ayn Rand (she is not subtle). At the very least, she is quite consistent (and adamant). Despite managing to quote herself more than any other source, she takes the time to highlight numerous articles from her "Scrapbook of Evil" in order to intellectually disembowel the woeful authors. It is stimulating reading. Seriously. Especially if you enjoy mind-bendingly complicated sentence structure....more

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Sep 25, 2011

Христо Блажев rated it

“Капитализмът: непознатият идеал” на Ранд обявява война на държавата: http://www.knigolandia.info/2010/01/blog...

Сборникът със статии на Айн Ранд, Алън Грийнспам и Робърт Хесен “Капитализмът: непознатият идеал” е своего рода голяма научна бележка под линия към изумителните романи “Изворът” и “Атлас изправи рамене” по думите на самата писателка. В него тя е насъбрала множество публикации в пресата на тримата през 60-те, в които развива в научен вид своята рационална философия - “обект...more

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Jun 28, 2011

Matt rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Matt by: Jenny

The immorality of altruism...Conventional wisdom has always seemed to say that capitalism is a cut-throat system that rewards selfishness and materialism, leaving most of society out in the cold. Collectivism, on the other hand, is a fair and thoughtful system that provides for society as a whole. I had heard plenty about Ayn Rand over the years, but haven't read any of her books until now. Her contribution to the defense of capitalism is huge as I have never heard such well formed arguments. Ra...more

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Sep 20, 2008

Joe rated it

Funny to read a young Alan Greenspan's arguments for eliminating the federal reserve and returning to the gold standard.

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Jun 02, 2011

Jasmine rated it

Shelves: political, business

I've been listening to the audio CDs during my commute to and from work an have been loving it!! Some of the CDs were quite scratched and a little hard to decipher at times so I am definitely going to have to buy a hardcopy of the book later down the line when I have space and a bigger living area. I would definitely like a good copy to have for life. While I definitely do not agree with Ayn Rand's belief of what exactly evil is, I think she's right on about almost everything else. I think she i...more

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Nov 19, 2009

Christopher rated it

This book by novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, (author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead") is a treatise on the politico-economic branch of her philosophy of Objectivism. The arguments put forth provide the moral backing that capitalism has always lacked, and without which it is doomed to destruction.

The essays included cover a wide range of topics: from the necessity of an economy based on a gold standard, to the reason why a free nation cannot benefit ...more

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Aug 17, 2009

James rated it

Shelves: economics, philosophy, favorites, essays

- In 1967 I began undergraduate studies in the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin. Within a year I had chosen Economics as my major and embarked on a path to fulfill the requirements of that degree. Shortly before, I had discovered the works of Ayn Rand and this volume, which was first published in 1966, joined with volumes of Hayek, Friedman and Mises as part of my auxiliary reading in the economics of capitalism. I say auxiliary because, except in the history of ...more

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May 26, 2009

Joshua rated it

Shelves: reviews

A collection of essays written mostly by Ayn Rand, this book did a good job of getting out the over all message of Individual Rights superseding the collective.

Some of the most interesting bits I found were the parallels between the arguments taking place circa the mid- to late-1960's and today; we seem to still be facing all of the arguments coming out of D.C. now that we were then. Things like the false dichotomies of "whether government should do X or Y", when the questi...moreA collection of essays written mostly by Ayn Rand, this book did a good job of getting out the over all message of Individual Rights superseding the collective.

Some of the most interesting bits I found were the parallels between the arguments taking place circa the mid- to late-1960's and today; we seem to still be facing all of the arguments coming out of D.C. now that we were then. Things like the false dichotomies of "whether government should do X or Y", when the question needs to be, "should government be involved at all?"

In "The Nature of Government", Rand makes a compelling case defining the role that government plays:

The fundamental difference between private action and governmental action - a difference thoroughly ignored and evaded today - lies in the fact that a government holds a monopoly on the legal use of physical force.

Because of this, government must be narrowly defined and tightly controlled to prevent that legal monopoly from being wielded by those with political pull to harm particular individuals or groups.

In "What is Capitalism?", the argument is that pure capitalism as a system is the only social/political structure that relies solely on the rights of the individual to better themselves without resorting to the use of physical force and taking what is needed from others.

In "Notes on the History of American Free Enterprise", (the lack of) these two concepts in particular are starkly portrayed with references to early American railroad systems:

There were many forms of government help for these projects, such as federal land grants, subsidies, state bonds, municipal bonds, etc. A great many speculators started railroad projects as a quick means to get some government cash, with no concern for the future or the commercial possibilities of their railroads. They went through the motions of laying so many miles of shoddy rail, anywhere at all, without inquiring whether the locations they selected had any need for a railroad or any economic future. Some of those men collected the cash and vanished, never starting any railroad at all. This is the source of the popular impression that the origin of American railroads was a period of wild, unscrupulous speculation. But the railroads of this period which were planned and built by businessmen for a proper, private, commercial purpose were the ones that survived, prospered, and proved unusual foresight in the choice of their locations.

In another section of the same essay, after quoting two liberal journalists decrying the corruption of the railroads who "had bought senators and congressmen, just as they bought rails and locomotives...", we are asked to identify the actual parties of the corruption:

"..what could the railroads do, except try to 'own whole legislatures' if these legislatures held the power of life or death over them? What could the railroads do, except resort to bribery, if they wished to exist at all? Who was to blame and who was 'corrupt'--the businessmen who had to pay 'protection money' for the right to remain in business--or the politicians who held the power to sell that right?"

Over all, I found the essays in this collection to be extremely thought provoking. Rand is utterly scathing in some instances when speaking directly about socialism and Soviet Russia, but these seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Essays by Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen and Nathaniel Branden help to break up Rand's almost single-minded attraction to concepts covered in her book "Atlas Shrugged", and, especially those of Greenspan, bring in pointed rebukes of particular instances in which public policy, in the name of protecting the average man, has actually done more harm by eroding individual rights than good.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in economics, politics and the philosophy of individualism.(less)

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May 25, 2008

dead letter office rated it

her nonfiction is better than her fiction, in that she doesn't feel compelled to construct anything resembling a "plot" (not her strong suit), and she restrains some of her impulses toward soaring, melodramatic rhetoric since she can't dump it off on some character. (she does manage to find a way around this by REPEATEDLY quoting her own fiction to back up her nonfictional points, which i think is an inversion peculiarly ayn randian in its egocentricity.)

free market capital...more

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Jan 08, 2008

Ellis rated it

Shelves: economics, nonfiction, politics

This book is a collection of essays on capitalism. While the book was published in 1986, some essays in the book were written as far back as the 60s. As a compendium of essays can do, without carefully selecting included content, some of the essays seem to stray from the main emphasis of the whole. This seemed to be the case especially in the essay about the Berkely demonstrations. While issues of capitalism were addressed, it didn't have the strong economics emphasis that most of the book h...moreThis book is a collection of essays on capitalism. While the book was published in 1986, some essays in the book were written as far back as the 60s. As a compendium of essays can do, without carefully selecting included content, some of the essays seem to stray from the main emphasis of the whole. This seemed to be the case especially in the essay about the Berkely demonstrations. While issues of capitalism were addressed, it didn't have the strong economics emphasis that most of the book had.

Reading this book was an interesting experience, because I really do agree with lots of the Free-Market principles that Rand euphorically proclaims. Rand's main theme of this book is that an absolutely free market is the most fair system, that this system is resistant to failures, such as depressions, and that this system will provide the best outcomes for all. I do agree that, if all members of the society act ethically - no cheating or dishonesty in business (this will NOT happen), then an absolutely free market would produce a "fair" outcome for all members of a society. Of course this "fair" outcome would be the dream for social darwinists that believe that the bright and ambitious should succeed and the dim and lazy should fail. I don't disagree that in some sense this may be "fair", although it is never fair for the child of a failing parent. The child can't fail just for being born to people who've chosen not to make the most of the capitalist system. A "fair" outcome can only result if we all start off on a level playing field. We are wrong if we think that all Americans have the same opportunities. Ask the Native Americans or the African Americans if we all start out with equal opportunities. We are also wrong if we think that we can enslave a race or opress and demean groups of people and expect them to function at the same level as soon as we say we are sorry and that on second thought, maybe it is okay if you learn to read.

One of the things that I most love about America is that America is, or should be, a land of opportunity where any member of society can make something of him/herself by hard work and dedication. I don't think that it is the responsibility of the well-off of society to provide luxuries for those who don't apply themselves, but I do believe that we should provide the infrastructure and programs, such as a good robust education, health care, libraries, and food for the hungry, so that ANY young person can feel that they actually can make it out of their low position in life and that they may be free to dream of a future that they actually have the resources and hope to obtain. Am I my brother's keeper? You bet.

Not only would providing hope and opportunity for all make me feel good personally, but it would have uncounted benefits, such as decreased crime. Will we always win with people we help? No, unfortunately, but perhaps after generations of trying we will pull people from a legacy of failure and implant hope in thier souls. Even if we don't succeed in all our efforts, we all succeed personally/spiritually when we help others.(less)

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Jan 10, 2008

Donna rated it

Shelves: non-fiction, politics, philosophy, classic-books, russia

I’m enjoying reading these collections of essays by Ayn Rand and her pals on the philosophy of individual rights. This volume showed how the preservation of individual rights is closely related to the economic theory of capitalism. I was also interested in the appendix about her views on the nature of government.

FAVOURITE QUOTE: "No thought, knowledge, or consistency is required in order to destroy; unremitting thought, enormous knowledge, and a ruthless consistency are requ...more

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Aug 10, 2011

Erich added it · review of another edition

Great objective view of capitalism the way an outsider who has seen the destructive activities of a socialistic government. There are theorists and those who have experienced. Ayn Rand is the latter.

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May 31, 2009

Derek rated it

Shelves: non-fiction, economics, political-science, free-market-advocacy

Interesting to read Rand's theories directly as opposed to the interpretations of devotees and critics, especially her concepts on the role of government and of the essential definition and role of human rights. Some points worth considering, but far too much idolization of the businessman and far too little consideration for the coercion which economic powers can bring to bear. Given how often I've heard her praised for her elegance with words, I found her prose a bit stilted and clumsy. There...more

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May 28, 2009

Kelly Murray rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

This is the cherry that tops the Ayn Rand sundae I've been consuming for the past 2 1/2 years. Capitalism really is an unknown ideal, and it's a shame that it was never given an honest chance to fully manifest. What we have now is nowhere near capitalism- we're on a downward slippery slope to socialism...which I'm dreading more with each passing law. She had it right all along. I find it amazing that someone could be so dead-on in predicting what the future would be like if we had kept going in ...more

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Oct 14, 2011

Jay D rated it

The philosophical foundation of capitalism. A unique set of essays that dissects collectivism, and includes two essays by Alan Greenspan. Essential economics reading.

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Jun 13, 2010

Kent rated it

Recommends it for: everyone graduating high school

As I was reading this collection of essays, mostly by Ms. Rand from the 1960s, I thought the book should be required reading for everyone graduating from high school. After finishing the book, I now believe that a final examination on the two appendices to the book should be a prerequisite for graduation.

Ruthlessly consistent in her logic and direct with her language, Rand expresses ideas held by all of us at an almost superfluous level, but then asks (requires) the reader to burrow...more

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Aug 14, 2011

Shoeib is currently reading it

Powerful exploration of capitalism , although has some very baise analysis. but still convinces reader that her points are correct.

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Aug 22, 2009

Jenny rated it

This is a treatise basically detailing Rand's crushing love affair with high-achievers. In it she goes on at length about the moral superiority of capitalism (as compared to socialism or communism) as it is the only system to honor the primacy of the rational human mind. Just as every politician should be required to read The Constitution as their nightly bedtime story, every corporate executive should be required to read this book nearly as often. If capitalists today were truly as moral as Ran...more

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Jan 21, 2008

Nathan Greenwood rated it

This is one of the greatest books I've read. There are only three books I immediately began to re-read upon finishing and this is one of them. The other two are "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins and "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. While I've never been a great fan of her fictional works, I've been a great fan of Ayn Rand ever since reading this book. Not to say that I don't think her fictional works are great (I just don't enjoy fiction). I really can't say why I ...more

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Jul 30, 2011

Wilma Rebstock rated it

· review of another edition

Many years ago I was quite an advocate of Ayn Rand and spent a lot of thought on her writings. I certainly don't know how much I would be influenced today.

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Feb 21, 2011

Richard rated it

Should be required reading for every high school student in the United States...

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Dec 11, 2010

Nedland P. rated it

Worth reading for Rand's take, but I liked her novels better.

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Apr 03, 2008

Steven Millar rated it

I haven't finished every essay in this book but having devoured the bulk of them I feel quite content to say that this book is the golden age of objectivist writing. Before Ayn Rand turned her institute into a cult of personality and before Alan Greenspan turned his back on the principles he held to heart. Filled with the facts of capitalism that everyone who would think of opposing it needs to consider first!

As an asides the book has tuned me into the writing of Nathaniel Bre...more

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Aug 11, 2011

Rafal Pruszynski rated it

Forceful, deep, humane.

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Jun 22, 2009

Dani Kollin rated it

Recommends it for: Anyone interested in the crossroads between economic theory and personal freedom

Recommended to Dani by: My brother

This book is a searing commentary on the machinations of the left and the right with regards to both parties abject disregard or abjuration of the idea of freedom. What's more is that to read this book now, some 43 years after its first printing is to listen to the the prescience of the author herself. Agree ordisagree, it's hard to deny the fact that she not only predicts our current financial crisis to a "T" but nails the all too familiar culprits squarely to the wall in doing so.

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Jan 13, 2012

Kate Li rated it

Definitely not a fan of her non-fic, but her essays on capitalism and the role of government are spot on. Written elegantly and simplistically. Far cry from her novels which read like monstrous hybrids of manifesto/soap opera.

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Jan 23, 2011

Jon-david rated it

Shelves: economics, political

I think Rand is an excellent writer. She does a great job showing the logic of behind the free market and how it is morally superior to any other economical/political system.

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About Ayn Rand

Alisa Rosenbaum was born in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg to a prosperous Jewish family. When the Bolsheviks requisitioned the pharmacy owned by her father, Fronz, the Rosenbaums fled to the Crimea. Alisa returned to the city (renamed Leningrad) to attend the university, but in 1926 relatives who had already settled in America offered her the chance of joining them there. With money from the sa...more

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“Since knowledge, thinking, and rational action are properties of the individual, since the choice to exercise his rational faculty or not depends on the individual, man’s survival requires that those who think be free of the interference of those who don’t. Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man’s mind.

A rational mind does not work under compulsion; it does not subordinate its grasp of reality to anyone’s orders, directives, or controls; it does not sacrifice its knowledge, its view of the truth, to anyone’s opinions, threats, wishes, plans, or “welfare.” Such a mind may be hampered by others, it may be silenced, proscribed, imprisoned, or destroyed; it cannot be forced; a gun is not an argument. (An example and symbol of this attitude is Galileo.)

It is from the work and the inviolate integrity of such minds—from the intransigent innovators—that all of mankind’s knowledge and achievements have come. (See The Fountainhead.) It is to such minds that mankind owes its survival. (See Atlas Shrugged.)” — 3 people liked it

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