Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned and controlled rather than publicly or state-owned and controlled. In capitalism, the land, labor, capital and all other resources, are owned, operated and traded by private individuals or corporations for the purpose of profit,[1][2] and where investments, distribution, income, production, pricing and supply of goods, commodities and services are primarily determined by private decision in a mainly market economy.[3][4] A distinguishing feature of capitalism is that each person owns his or her own labor and therefore is allowed to sell the use of it to employers.[1][5] In capitalism, private rights and property relations are protected by the rule of law of a limited regulatory framework.[6][7] In the modern capitalist state, legislative action is confined to defining and enforcing the basic rules of the market,[6][7] though the state may provide some public goods and infrastructure.[8] Laissez-faire, which some consider to be the pure form[9] of capitalism in which the state only exercises minimal control over the economy, has never existed in practice.[10][11][9] Capitalistic economic practices has increasingly became institutionalized in England between the 16th and 19th centuries, although some features of capitalist organization existed in the ancient world, and early forms of merchant capitalism flourished during the Middle Ages.[12][13] Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism.[12] From Britain, it gradually spread throughout Europe, across political and cultural frontiers. In the 19th and 20th centuries, capitalism provided the main, but not exclusive, means of industrialization throughout much of the world.[14] In the "capitalist mixed economy", the state intervenes in market activity and provides many services.[15] Because all large economies today have a mixture of private and public ownership and control, some feel that the term "mixed economies" more precisely describes most contemporary economies.[16][17] Other capitalist systems include laissez-faire, in which the state plays a minimal role, and anarcho-capitalism in which the the state is superseded by the market and private enterprise. During the last century capitalism has often been contrasted with centrally planned economies.