Defining capitalism may be for a different article but there is an important distinction that should be made when we discuss it to clear up confusion.
For a simple definition, it is economic freedom and private property. The distinction comes into play when people start lumping capitalism with other stuff. You may have heard terms like crony capitalism or state capitalism etc. The distinction is “capitalism and” vs “capitalism except.” When people start lumping other stuff with capitalism it doesn’t not add something to it, it replaces part of it. People use the term mixed economy to describe this lumping together of capitalism with other stuff. Namely, other economic ideas like socialism, communism, interventionism. Mixed economy is a nice way of saying fascist economy. Unfortunately most developed countries have this type of economy. There can be any amount of this other stuff mixed together. That’s why all these countries can still be the same basic thing (fascist/ mixed economy) but still be quite different from each other.
For an example we need to understand what economic freedom and property mean.
*Property is the right to have exclusive control of what happens to something.
*Economic freedom is the ability for any 2 people to trade properties or services on terms they both agree to.
A lot of people say we have a capitalist system now. We do but only to a certain extent. It also contains much anti capitalism. When the state comes along and decides to add a regulation of some sort they are essentially saying that sure you own this property but not this certain aspect of it we own that and get to say whats done with it.
This is how people can simultaneously say look at all this good stuff that capitalism has given us and then also complain about how we don’t have real capitalism. The private property and economic freedom that we do have causes the good stuff but the stuff that is a negation to capitalism is what we are complain about. Some people don’t like the term mixed economy because it doesn’t make this distinction. It’s not clear if it means a bunch of whole things working together or a bunch of partial things lumped into one. The later is what it is. There is no “capitalism and” there is only “capitalism except.”
