The justification of capitalism is not that the economy grows faster than it grows under any other system … not that the goods pour forth. The justification of capitalism is that it is the only economic system consistent with the requirements of man’s rational nature, that it protects man’s rights and leaves each individual free to act … based on nothing but his own uncoerced, rational judgment. That is the human mode of survival; that is what man’s nature requires of him if he is to live on earth. The abundance of a capitalist economy is a consequence of its coherence with man’s rational nature.
M. Northrup Buechner, Objective Economics: Ayn Rand’s philosophy changes everything about economics