Onkar GhateThis letter by Onkar Ghate was published in the Wall Street Journal on October 19, 2025. The Letter was written in response to the Journal’s special report on capitalism titled “USA250: Capitalism” that appeared on September 29.
The Journal fittingly began its celebration of America’s 250th birthday with a section devoted to capitalism (“USA250: Capitalism,” A Special Report, Sept. 29). But to understand that topic fully, one must confront a disquieting truth: Today, few people embrace capitalism. Many on the left and right fervently oppose it.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence weren’t akin to today’s progressives searching for their next handout or today’s conservatives devoted to faith, family and tradition. They were radicals, steeped in Enlightenment thought. It’s called the American experiment because they were consciously inventing something new.
Much as they sought to separate church from state, they wanted to separate economy from state too. The new American government stripped the state of much of its power to enforce ideological orthodoxy or suppress dissenting views. Likewise, it was stripped of much of its power to pick economic winners and losers. Such titans of industry as Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan thrived here precisely because they escaped the regulatory dictates of the Old World. Today, however, this political ideal has few champions.
Capitalism is what made America great, but at our 250th anniversary, it is, in Ayn Rand’s words, “an unknown ideal.” Anyone serious about reviving capitalism and restoring America’s greatness must grasp Rand’s insight into its true nature: Full, consistent capitalism requires “a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.”
Onkar Ghate
The Ayn Rand Institute
Alexandria, Va.
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NI Staff
