The collectivism and individualism.

Throughout history there have been two basic forms of social organization: collectivism and individualism. The collectivism has taken many forms: socialism, welfare-statism and communism are its more notable variations. The only social system commensurate with individualism is laissez-faire capitalism. In the simplest terms, capitalism can be defined as the condition of possessing capital -- the original funds or principal of an individual, company, or corporation, which provide the basis for financial and economic operations. The term capitalism also describes an ideology that favors the existence of capitalists (individuals who accumulate capital which then becomes available for investment in financial or industrial enterprises).

Capitalism is the social system based upon private ownership of the means of production, which entails a completely uncontrolled and unregulated economy where all land is privately owned. But the separation of the state and the economy is not a primary, it is only an aspect of the premise that capitalism is based upon: individual rights.

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Das Kapital, Karl Marx, Titelseite

Karl Marx 1882 (edited)

Capitalism is the only politico-economic system based on the doctrine of individual rights. This means that capitalism recognizes that each and every person is the owner of his own life, and has the right to live his life in any manner he chooses as long as he does not violate the rights of others.

The essential nature of capitalism is social harmony through the pursuit of self-interest. Under capitalism, the individual's pursuit of his own economic self-interest simultaneously benefits the economic self-interests of all others, and the incentive is to work harder because each producer will receive the total value of his production--the rewards are not shared. Capitalism causes wealth to be created in the most efficient manner possible, which ultimately raises the standard of living, increases the economic opportunities, and makes available an ever-growing supply of products for everyone.

The capitalism has been defined by the different thought of some underlying philosophy. Karl Marx whose famous treatise Capital is a detailed study of the rise of capitalism as a dominant of production. He defined the capitalism as a system which exploits a large portion of society for the sake of a small minority of wealthy capitalists. Mark set forth an extremely powerful theory to explain the transformations taking place as societies became more industrialized and urbanized. He believed that those transformations would inevitably end in a revolution in which the worker would overthrow capitalism, but he also felt that revolution could be hastened through political action.

None of social systems have been perfectly success in a society. We have to concede that capitalism still has some problems. For example, a widening gap between rich and poor, a short-term outlook, speculative drones, and circulating economic decline. Some of these problems have been obvious for hundreds of years. I think the best solution so far is democratic government that alternates between capitalist and socialist, each acting as a check to the other's excesses.