Price is Primary

121 years ago, the woman who taught capitalism to more people than any economist was born. February 2, 1905. Ayn Rand sold over 37 million books. Atlas Shrugged alone passed 10 million copies. That’s more than Hayek, more than Friedman, more than any other defender of the free market in history. Why did she succeed? Because she didn’t write about capitalism in the traditional way. She wrote capitalism as an epic. Heroes who produce while being destroyed by envious parasites. Creators carrying the world on their backs while being told they’re not doing enough. She turned economics into an irresistible moral narrative. While economists were explaining supply and demand curves, Rand showed why creating wealth is a virtue. While others apologized for defending the rich, she attacked head-on with lectures like “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business.” She didn’t soften, didn’t apologize, didn’t ask for permission. And millions followed her precisely because of that. Of course, she had her limits. Rand believed reason was enough, that everything could be fully rationalized. Hayek disagreed. He knew that markets and traditions emerge from spontaneous order, from processes no single mind can control. Rand wanted to rationalize the entire world. Hayek understood the limits of human reason. Her impact remains. Millions entered the freedom movement through Rand. Young people who would never read an economics treatise read Atlas Shrugged, and discovered that producing is not a sin.