I've been listening to Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne Heller.

This is the first thing I've come across in a long time that attempts a truly objective approach to the woman that defined her own philosophy and called it Objectivism. Doing some digging, I found an interview that I've not seen before, at least I don't remember seeing it. This spurred me to find one of the basic premises for her system, or rather the reference in which she states it plainly. It can be found in her book For The New Intellectual.
Of course I have a digital copy on my computer (doesn't everyone?), so I did a search.

The New Intellectuals must remind the world that the basic premise of the Founding Fathers was man’s right to his own life, to his own liberty, to the pursuit of his own happiness—which means: man’s right to exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; and that the political implementation of this right is a society where men deal with one another as traders, by voluntary exchange to mutual benefit.

In the book she says that "Capitalism and altruism are incompatible; they are philosophical opposites; they cannot co-exist in the same man or in the same society." This is why liberals today have such a hard time with Ayn Rand, because bleeding hearts see altruism as a noble goal of the highest order. Ayn Rand, as stated in her book, sees the consequences of altruism are " slavery, brute force, stagnant terror and sacrificial furnaces."

Strong words indeed.