Capitalism is an economic system that encourages individuals and all segments of society to profit from the ownership of processes that create goods and services or from investments in activities or services created by others. With the demise of the feudal system, capitalism gained acceptance in the Western World as a way for individuals to profit from their own ingenuity and abilities. The system opened the way for the private ownership of property as well as for the attendant problems that included wage labor conflicts, power relations and property rights. Political ideologies varied in degrees of influence, but most tended to agree that the government does not have a rightful place in the free practice of capitalism. By the 19th and 20th centuries, economic capitalism emerged as the most dominant form of the market system. |