Was Ayn Rand Right About the Ultimate Minority?

Let’s examine one of her famous quotes

Closeup of a photo portrait credited to “Talbot” (though not on original dust jacket). Published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company. (Retrieved via Wikipedia)

In 1961, economist Alice O’Connor, known by her pen name “Ayn Rand,” gave a controversial lecture titled “America’s Persecuted Minority.” She claimed wealthy business owners were being targeted and unfairly discriminated against — often in the name of justice and protection of minorities.

Already famous for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Rand argued that America’s antitrust laws put an unfair burden on America’s business leaders. She claimed that “every ugly, brutal aspect of injustice toward racial or religious minorities is being practiced towards businessmen.”

This lecture was later developed into an essay which became part of her nonfiction work Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am not an avid Rand disciple. I agree with her sometimes and disagree with her sometimes.

In the case of her quote above, I don’t believe that America’s anti-trust laws represent a “brutal” assault on individual liberty. On the contrary, in a free society, some regulation of Big Business is necessary. But I don’t want to get into the nuts and bolts of anti-trust laws.