Don Watkins

Don Watkins (born 1982) is an American writer. He is an Objectivist and was a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute from 2006 to 2017. Watkins now works for the Center for Industrial Progress.

In March 2006, Watkins was appointed a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, specializing as a writer and an editor in Rand's ideas and policy issues, and as a researcher in capitalism, government welfare and Social Security. In 2012, with Yaron Brook, he co-authored Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government, which aims to show how Objectivism can be applied to solve the fiscal and economic problems of the modern day. The book received positive reviews from The Financial Times.

Also with Brook, since January 2011, Watkins has contributed a column entitled "The Objectivist" to Forbes, writing about economics and liberty. He has also contributed to The Guardian, USA Today, Fox News, CNBC, The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, The Washington Times, and other media outlets. He has often participated in talks and debates in front of university groups, such as at the University of Arkansas, Stanford University, North Carolina State University, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has also addressed Tea Party audiences.

Watkins and his wife had their first child, Olivia, in 2013.

In early 2014, Watkins launched the 'End the Debt Draft' campaign, promoting his goal of ending government welfare in order to end government debt, which he sees as imposing on young Americans an unearned and immoral obligation in a similar way to the military draft. His book, RooseveltCare: How Social Security is Sabotaging the Land of Self-Reliance, was published in June 2014.

In March 2016, Watkins, along with coauthor Yaron Brook, published Equal Is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality.

In 2017, Watkins, along with coauthor Yaron Brook, published In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance.