key features of capitalism
companies : capitalism permits the creation of companies or business organizations that exist separately from the people associated with them.
profit motive
the profit motive implies a critical assumption about human nature-that human beings are economic creatures who recognize and are motivated by their own monetary interests.
in his famous treatise on political economy,An inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776),Adam Smith explained how free competition makes individual pursuit of self-interest socially beneficial .
private property: Capitalism requires private ownership of the major means of production(factories,warehouses,offices,machines,trucking fleets,land.etc.)
moral justifications of capitalism
the natural right to property:one basic defense of capitalism rests on a supposed natural moral right to property
utilitarians deny the existence of such rights.
other critics doubt that this right entitles one to have a system of property rules and regulations identical to the one we now have in the u.s