• Profit.cash image by Alexey Klementiev from Fotolia.com
  
  Capitalism is an economic system that favors markets, wage labor and private ownership. It is a system motivated by maximizing profit over investment, resulting into a class system of workers, owners and a middle class between the two. Owners possess and profit from what economist Karl Marx calls "the means of production," which could be factories, companies and entities that collectively produce something. Workers "own" their labor and contract it and their time for wages or salaries.
  
  

Pros

• A variety of markets.stock exchange image by Christopher Walker from Fotolia.com
  
  A capitalist economy is said to encourage innovation in technology and industry. Making money is an enticement for an individual or a company to offer a better product than a competitor. This is what some economic and political commentators call "the genius of the marketplace." Also, there is a belief that a pursuit of profit can lead to social mobility; people who were once poor can create a product, make money, and climb out of one class and into another.
  
  

Cons

• Inequalityhomeless woman image by Christopher Martin from Fotolia.com
  
  Capitalist societies have issues with social inequalities and social justice. There is always an impoverished class, and as a result, some sort of suffering taking place. Without any sort of regulation on private business, power also tends to concentrate into the hands of a powerful few. A company can grow so large, it can become a monopoly and stifle meaningful economic competition.
  
  

Misnomers

• Democracy and capitalism are not the same thing. As stated earlier, capitalism is an economic system motivated by making money. Democracy is a political system motivated by providing equality in government.