Ayn Rand is famous for writing the non-fictional collection of Essays called "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal." I agree with her it is the ideal and I even agree full, pure Capitalism has not been in existence and thus known either in a long time or maybe not ever. However, one would be amiss to think this means that one cannot know what is or is not capitalism. Nor does it mean the people whom do not understand and/or are against Capitalism gets to define what libertarians/voluntarism or Objectivists mean by capitalism when the term is used. However, I see some people doing just that within the liberty circles.
Capitalism does not mean cronyism and it does not mean State forced and imposed Monopolies over people within the market. Many people think various forms of corporate or even non-corporate business welfare or favors are part of capitalism. However, this is not the case and goes against the very state that Capitalism defines. Enemies of Capitalism or cronyism mistaken for capitalism do nit get to rob and then define terms to mean their own. The people whom do not wish to let people be free to live as they wish according to their own minds do not get to define what people in favor of such a society mean by their definitions or terms.
The term Capitalism is defined as follows;
A system of production and trade based on property and wealth being owned by private business and ordinary people, rather than the state
Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.
The recognition of individual rights entails the banishment of physical force from human relationships: basically, rights can be violated only by means of force. In a capitalist society, no man or group may initiate the use of physical force against others. The only function of the government, in such a society, is the task of protecting man’s rights, i.e., the task of protecting him from physical force; the government acts as the agent of man’s right of self-defense, and may use force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use; thus the government is the means of placing the retaliatory use of force under objective control.
Nowhere in the "Unknown Ideal" called Capitalism is there any room for lack of consent or coercion. So, there would be or will be no forced relationships of any kind. No non-consensual relationship of any kind. Essentially Capitalism as is defined by Objectivism or Libertarians is voluntarism and that is all. What one is referring to is a social system matching the one described above. Socialists and Communists, and Anti-Capitalists of all sorts do not get to define something away as something it is not. Capitalism has never meant to treat others cruelly or to hate the poor or needy. It does mean you cannot initiate coercion against people to help them.
