# Quote — Ayn Rand, Capitalism

> Businessmen are the one group that distinguishes capitalism and the American way of life from the totalitarian statism that is swallowing the rest of the world. All the other social groups- workers, farmers, professional men, scientists, soldiers- exist under dictatorships, even though they exist in chains, in terror, in misery, and in progressive self-destruction. But there is no such group as businessmen under a dictatorship. Their place is taken by armed thugs: by bureaucrats and commissars. Businessmen are the symbol of a free society- the symbol of America.

- Author: [Ayn Rand](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand.md)
- Book: [Capitalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand#Capitalism:_The_Unknown_Ideal_(1966)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism/businessmen-are-the

## More from this book

> Let anyone who believes that a high standard of living is the achievement of labor unions and government controls ask himself the following question: If one had a "time machine" and transported the united labor chieftains of America, plus three million government bureaucrats, back to the tenth century—would they be able to provide the medieval serf with electric light, refrigerators, automobiles, and television sets?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism/let-anyone-who.md)

> A gun is not an argument.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism/a-gun-is-not.md)

> It is futile to fight against, if one does not know what one is fighting for.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism/it-is-futile.md)