The-Morality-of-Capitalism-PDF

Ayn Rand and Capitalism: The Moral RevolutionBy David KelleyIn this essay, the Objectivist philosopher David Kelley proposes a“fourth revolution” to complete the foundations of the modern worldand to secure the gains made possible by capitalism.David Kelley is executive director of The Atlas Society, whichpromotes the development and dissemination of the philosophy ofObjectivism. Kelley is the author of The Evidence of the Senses,The Art of Reasoning (one of the most widely used textbooks onlogic in the United States), A Life of One’s Own: Individual Rightsand the Welfare State, and other books. He taught philosophy atVassar College and Brandeis University and has published widelyin the popular press, including such publications as Harper’s, TheSciences, Reason, Harvard Business Review, and Barron’s.This essay is reprinted by permission of the author from The NewIndividualist, spring 2009.“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”—Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1792.The crisis in financial markets has set off a predictable torrent ofanti-capitalist sentiment. Despite the fact that government regulationswere a major cause of the crisis, anti-capitalists and theirenablers in the media have blamed the market and called for newrestraints. The government has already exerted an unprecedenteddegree of intervention in financial markets, and it now seems clearthat new economic controls will expand far beyond Wall Street.Regulation of production and trade is one of the two basicthings that government does in our mixed economy. The otheris redistribution—transferring income and wealth from one setof hands to another. In this realm, too, anti-capitalists have seizedthe moment to call for new entitlements such as guaranteed healthcare, along with new tax burdens on the wealthy. The economic69