“When I say ‘capitalism,’ I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism — with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.”

— AYN RAND

What is capitalism?

Capitalism (from the Latin word capta, meaning “head”) is the social system of the Enlightenment, that unleashes the power of the human mind (reason), by equally protecting the individual’s inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, by banning the initiation of physical force from all relationships, resulting in a culture of peace, progress, and prosperity for all.

The term capitalism is used here in the broader political sense, i.e., a free society, and not in the narrower economic sense, i.e., a free-market. Capitalism is not just an economic system (free-market) that can be grafted onto any political structure but is a complex, integrated social system that depends on a specific ethical, political, legal, economic, and cultural foundation.

What is a capitalist?

A capitalist is an advocate of laissez-faire capitalism, regardless of how economically rich or poor they are.

Within the specialized domain of economics, a person who owns a business is recognized as a capitalist, regardless of whether one advocates capitalism politically or not. Friedrich Engels is regarded economically as a capitalist because he is a factory owner, though politically Engels is a communist as co-author of The Communist Manifesto. Similarly, philosopher Ayn Rand is regarded economically as a novelist as the author of the best-selling novel Atlas Shrugged, though politically  Rand is a self-described “radical for capitalism.”

Engels is a communist, and Rand a capitalist, not because of their accumulated wealth, but because of their ideas.

To discover if you are a capitalist take the Capitalism Tour.