Paper Summary:

This paper begins by defining capitalism and explains how Karl Marx's theories related to it. It then discusses Lenin's and Marx's criticism of capitalism and explains why they considered this economic system to be inferior to communism.

From the Paper:

"According to the American Heritage Dictionary, capitalism is "An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market." (American Heritage Dictionary, 2003) Although capitalism has been attacked, mischaracterized, and otherwise not understood by communist and socialist theorists throughout the world, the practice has endured the 400 plus year experiment in this country, and has proved itself to be the greatest stabilizing force in an economy which seeks to treat all its people fairly. By combining capitalism with the practice of allowing all people equal opportunity to engage in capitalist enterprise, a "market economy" has evolved. In a free market economy, the forces that drive the national economy neither rest in the hands of a few wealthy landowners, nor in the hands of a wealthy bourgeois class, nor in the hands of the government. The power which turns the economic engines rests in the hands of the peoples, and in turn can benefit every person."

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