CAPITALISM: A type of economy based on -- (1) private ownership of most resources, goods, and other stuff (private property); (2) freedom to generally use the privately-owned resources, goods, and other stuff to get the most wages, rent, interest, and profit possible; and (3) a system of relatively competitive markets. While government establishes the legal "rules of the game" for capitalism and provides assorted public goods, like national defense, education, and infrastructure, most production, consumption, and resource allocation decisions are left up to individual businesses and consumers. The term capitalism is derived from the notion that capital goods are under private, rather than government, ownership (compare communism, socialism.

     See also | market | capital | competition | private sector | public sector | free market | laissez faire | efficiency | allocation | government | resources | public good | production | consumption | incentive | equity | income distribution | distribution standards | second estate |

CAPITALISM, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2021. [Accessed: October 16, 2021].

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A special sort of human effort that takes on the risk of bringing labor, capital, and land together and organizing production. This is one of four basic categories of resources, or factors of production. The other three are labor, capital, and land.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time browsing about a thrift store trying to buy either a how-to book on wine tasting or a bookshelf that will fit in your closet. Be on the lookout for empty parking spaces that appear to be near the entrance to a store.
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