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<blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 406546" data-attributes="member: 463">Um, I'm thinking I should maybe take this off-list.&nbsp; Anyway: there was never unbridled free-market Capitalism&nbsp; in Germany or Russia, quite the reverse.&nbsp; The more free market a country was, the LESS it was troubled by Totalitarian philosphies in the mid-20th century: the UK much less than Continental Europe, the USA least of all.&nbsp; The states were totalitarianism took root were corporatist (state &amp; big business in partnership, entrepreneurialsm repressed) like Germany or barely post-feudal (Russia). Rand never praised &quot;rightist organic entites of control and destruction&quot; - in fact she frequently attacks 'big business' and its unhealthy (and inefficient) influence on government.&nbsp; What she advocates is free competition between competing small-to-medium businesses, she hated monopoly capitalism and the state/industrial complex.&nbsp; I'd say her big failing was failure to recognise that the selfish drive of successful companies _impels_ them , when they get big and powerful enough, to seek increased wealth through market domination, _not_ any more&nbsp; through producing the best products but through control of government through lobby groups etc, ie free market capitalism tends naturally towards monopoly capitalism, and if you have a government at all, it will require legislation &amp; supervision (through ant-trust laws, anti-monopolies boards, etc) to hinder this.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="S'mon, post: 406546, member: 463"] Um, I'm thinking I should maybe take this off-list. Anyway: there was never unbridled free-market Capitalism in Germany or Russia, quite the reverse. The more free market a country was, the LESS it was troubled by Totalitarian philosphies in the mid-20th century: the UK much less than Continental Europe, the USA least of all. The states were totalitarianism took root were corporatist (state & big business in partnership, entrepreneurialsm repressed) like Germany or barely post-feudal (Russia). Rand never praised "rightist organic entites of control and destruction" - in fact she frequently attacks 'big business' and its unhealthy (and inefficient) influence on government. What she advocates is free competition between competing small-to-medium businesses, she hated monopoly capitalism and the state/industrial complex. I'd say her big failing was failure to recognise that the selfish drive of successful companies _impels_ them , when they get big and powerful enough, to seek increased wealth through market domination, _not_ any more through producing the best products but through control of government through lobby groups etc, ie free market capitalism tends naturally towards monopoly capitalism, and if you have a government at all, it will require legislation & supervision (through ant-trust laws, anti-monopolies boards, etc) to hinder this. [/QUOTE]

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