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Capitalism

 - 5 dictionary results
Financial Dictionary

Capitalism definition


An economic system based on a free market, open competition, profit motive and private ownership of the means of production. Capitalism encourages private investment and business, compared to a government-controlled economy. Investors in these private companies (i.e. shareholders) also own the firms and are known as capitalists.

Investopedia Commentary

In such a system, individuals and firms have the right to own and use wealth to earn income and to sell and purchase labor for wages with little or no government control. The function of regulating the economy is then achieved mainly through the operation of market forces where prices and profit dictate where and how resources are used and allocated. The U.S. is a capitalistic system.

Related Links

Economics Basics Tutorial
Macroeconomic Analysis
Understanding Supply-Side Economics

See also: Dog Eat Dog, Economy, Free Market, Invisible Hand, Keynesian Economics, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Supply-Side Theory

Also spelled: capitalizm

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cap·i·tal·ism

[kap-i-tl-iz-uhm]
–noun
an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

Origin:
1850–55; capital1 + -ism

an·ti·cap·i·tal·ism, noun
pro·cap·i·tal·ism, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
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World English Dictionary
capitalism (ˈkæpɪtəˌlɪzəm) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
Compare socialism free enterprise, Also called: private enterprise an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, characterized by the freedom of capitalists to operate or manage their property for profit in competitive conditions

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Word Origin & History

capitalism
1854, "condition of having capital;" from capital + -ism. Meaning "political/economic system which encourages capitalists" is recorded by 1877.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Cultural Dictionary

capitalism definition


An economic and political system characterized by a free market for goods and services and private control of production and consumption. (Compare socialism and communism.)

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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