Maggie's Farm

Capitalism is not a system, it is a liberty. Interestingly, when government collapses capitalism revives. Crime operates on capitalism as the criminal uses their personal earnings to generate more wealth, although using anti-social means.

Not finding any definition for capitalism beyond the 11th grade economics, private ownership of the means of production, I developed the following definition. I do note that practicing economists very often use "capitalism" for everything from private ownership to industrial/corporate (as opposed to the family farm).


Capitalism is a name given to the individual liberty or, as permitted, by the current entity that has monopoly on violence, to retain their personal earnings over that required for subsistence and use this savings, or capital to create wealth for their own self.

The type of capitalism one has is determined by who is permitted to engage in investments to better themselves up to State capitalism, commonly known as total socialism. Laissez Faire capitalism has the fewest restrictions and permit the most individuals to better themselves. Crony capitalism is when friends of the office holder are given special leave to better themselves. This is facilitated by interventionism and is better called government cronyism.

Socialism, in contrast, uses government to limit the individual ownership of productive capacity up to total socialism where the individual is permitted no ownership/control of productive capacity except for their direct personal skills and even then may be prevented by the overseers from using their skills in a job that requires them, instead being assigned other work. Under socialism, the liberty to better oneself is limited to government bureaucrats, controlling political party members and their cronies. The rest of the populace being slaves regardless of the treatment they receive.

Precisely what makes a slave is that he is allowed no use of productive capital to make wealth on his own account.