Capitalism is Not the Same as Free Markets, or Private Ownership

We can define terms how we like, so my title is perhaps overstated, but it's important to understand the ideas behind the words, as much as to understand the words themselves.

The term 'capitalism' came into popular use in the 19th century, i.e. during the industrial revolution, as a disparaging comment to discuss how people with very large amounts of money/capital (hence the name) such as banks or the hugely wealthy could control and dominate entire markets and hence society and ordinary people.

Even Marx made it very clear that when objecting to capitalism he was not objecting to private property or free markets or the trade of goods by ordinary people in what we would today consider 'free markets'. The objection was to those with so much capital they could buy up entire markets and then control them. When Marx wrote his Communist Manifesto it was not in order to prevent people from having their own weaving looms, or other tools or private items; it was an objection to the ability of the very richest to both control resources, and lobby government to control laws, which ensured the richest stayed the richest, and could control everyone else.

Don't allow the most horrifically wealthy, that is those who possess huge amounts of capital, and hence the ability to control markets and governments, to convince you that your desire to engage in a free exchange of goods, or to own private property on a reasonable scale, means you endorse their ability to control entire markets, the worlds resources, and the worlds governments.

Capitalism is not the same as simply wanting to own a reasonable amount of property or to exchange goods with others. Objecting to capitalism doesn't mean you can't work for yourself, or even have others working with or for you; it simply means that you object to the very richest being able to absolutely dominate a countries markets or it's government such that they can then control its population.

When the very richest try to push capitalism upon us, that's what they're trying to do.