Capitalism

CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM
Name:
Institution:
Date:
CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM
Capitalism refers to an economic system where the means of producing goods and natural resources are owned privately. There are three distinctive features that define capitalism. These features are the pursuit of personal profit, private ownership of property, and competition and consumer choice. Socialism, on the other hand, is an economic system where the means of production of goods and services and natural resources are collectively owned. Socialism exhibits three major features that are basically the opposite of the capitalism features. These features are collective ownership of property, government control over the economy and pursuit of collective goals. In the socialist context, justice is the society is achieved when individuals aren’t competing against each other to amass individual wealth but rather everyone is working so as meet the basic needs of all citizens. Capitalism, on the other hand, views justice as the market place freedom which allows individuals to invest, produce and buy as per one’s self-interest.
Most countries in the world have economic systems that combine both capitalism and socialism principles. This is because extremes in the economic systems aren’t applicable in the real world. The United States is a good example of a capitalist nation where most of their businesses are privately owned. However, since the government still plays a big role in the econom…