Rand contradicts herself 1.5

Ayn Rand’s philosophy contradicts her economic theory.

Ayn Rand asserts that capitalism has never existed.ⁱ Economic systems in her history have all been “statist” (for the state).ⁱⁱ She calls some of these statist economies “mixed” because capital investment played a part:

• “Thus what existed in practice in the nineteenth century was not pure capitalism but variously mixed economies… … it was the statist element of the mixtures that wrecked them; it was the free capitalist element that took the blameⁱⁱⁱ
• “It must be remembered that the political systems of the nineteenth century were not pure capitalism, but mixed economies. The element of freedom however was dominant^iv…
• when the repressive element of England’s mixed economy grew…”^v

Rand is dividing the observed characteristics of an economic system into two groups. She claims one group of characteristics to be the separate concept of “capitalism”; excluding the other characteristics.

However, her philosophy says not to do that : “Observe that concepts mean existents, not arbitrarily selected portions of existents. There is no basis whatever… … for a division of the characteristics of a concept’s units into two groups one of which is excluded from the concepts meaning”^vi.

She violates her own philosophy.