What is capitalism?
Capitalism is a socio-economic system in which private ownership means profit to the owner. The owner controls the means of production, so the profit belongs to the private business owner. In capitalism, the free market determines the production, distribution and price of goods and services. A free market is unregulated supply and demand with little government interference in matters of trade. Price agreements are made by buyers and sellers and the market dictates supply and demand. Competition policies may exist in a free market capitalist system. Capitalistic competition policies are usually based on the efficiency of economic feasibility, while socialistic competition policies are often concerned with unity in a single competitive market. The opposite of a free market is a controlled market. The government controls supply and the price of goods and services. Capitalism began in seventeenth century Europe and is associated with the European Enlightenment. The European Enlightenment f
An excerpt from Capitalism Magazine’s Book of the Year for 2005, The Capitalist Manifesto : The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire by Andrew Bernstein. A proper understanding of capitalism is sorely lacking among current politicians, intellectuals and even the American people, who generally support it. In order to gain such understanding, it is helpful to start with a true story that reveals the spirit, the sense of life, the emotional stance and outlook that characterizes capitalism. Then it will be possible to comprehend the deeper principles it embodies and the intellectual causes that give rise to it. The political principles of capitalism will be presented in this chapter; the moral and philosophical principles that validate it in Part Two. *** In the early 19th century, Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat, held a legal monopoly granted by the state of New York to run all steamboat traffic in that state. The state-enfranchised monopoly legally preve
Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. Under capitalism the state is separated from economics (production and trade), just like the state is separated from religion. Capitalism is the system of of laissez faire. It is the system of political freedom.
The word capitalism is now quite commonly used to describe the social system in which we now live. It is also often assumed that it has existed, if not forever, then for most of human history. In fact, capitalism is a relatively new social system.1 But what exactly does ‘capitalism’ mean? Class division Capitalism is the social system which now exists in all countries of the world. Under this system, the means for producing and distributing goods (the land, factories, technology, transport system etc) are owned by a small minority of people. We refer to this group of people as the capitalist class. The majority of people must sell their ability to work in return for a wage or salary (who we refer to as the working class.) The working class are paid to produce goods and services which are then sold for a profit. The profit is gained by the capitalist class because they can make more money selling what we have produced than we cost to buy on the labour market. In this sense, the working
The word capitalism is now quite commonly used to describe the social system in which we now live. It is also often assumed that it has existed, if not forever, then for most of human history. In fact, capitalism is a relatively new social system.For a brief historical account of how capitalism came into existence a couple of hundred years ago, see Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto. But what exactly does ‘capitalism’ mean?
