Editing Capitalism (section)

=== As a mode of production ===
{{further|Mode of production}}
The capitalist mode of production refers to the systems of organising production and distribution within capitalist [[society|societies]]. Private money-making in various forms (renting, banking, merchant trade, production for profit and so on) preceded the development of the capitalist mode of production as such.

The term capitalist mode of production is defined by [[Private property|private ownership]] of the [[means of production]], extraction of [[surplus value]] by the owning class for the purpose of [[capital accumulation]], [[Wage labour|wage-based labor]] and, at least as far as [[Commodity|commodities]] are concerned, being [[Market economy|market-based]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/c/a.htm#capitalism |title=Capitalism |publisher=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |access-date=8 July 2011 |author=Encyclopedia of Marxism at marxism.org |archive-date=7 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190507154837/https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/c/a.htm#capitalism |url-status=live}}</ref>

Capitalism in the form of money-making activity has existed in the shape of merchants and money-lenders who acted as intermediaries between consumers and producers engaging in [[simple commodity production]] (hence the reference to "[[merchant capitalism]]") since the beginnings of civilisation. What is specific about the "capitalist mode of production" is that most of the inputs and outputs of production are supplied through the market (i.e. they are commodities) and essentially all production is in this mode.<ref name="Modern Economics 1986, p. 54" /> By contrast, in flourishing feudalism most or all of the factors of production, including labor, are owned by the feudal ruling class outright and the products may also be consumed without a market of any kind, it is production for use within the feudal social unit and for limited trade.<ref name=ch32 /> This has the important consequence that, under capitalism, the whole organisation of the production process is reshaped and re-organised to conform with economic [[bounded rationality|rationality as bounded]] by capitalism, which is expressed in price relationships between inputs and outputs (wages, non-labor factor costs, sales and profits) rather than the larger rational context faced by society overall—that is, the whole process is organised and re-shaped in order to conform to "commercial logic". Essentially, capital accumulation comes to define economic rationality in capitalist production.<ref name=xxx31>{{cite web|url=http://www.dsp.org.au/node/31 |title=The contradictions of capitalism – Democratic Socialist Perspective |publisher=dsp.org.au |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406094810/http://www.dsp.org.au/node/31 |archive-date=6 April 2015}}</ref>

A society, region or [[nation]] is capitalist if the predominant source of incomes and products being distributed is capitalist activity, but even so this does not yet mean necessarily that the capitalist mode of production is dominant in that society.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Capitalism|url=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capitalism.asp|access-date=14 February 2022|website=Investopedia|language=en}}</ref>

[[Mixed economy|Mixed economies]] rely on the nation they are in to provide some goods or services, while the free market produces and maintains the rest.<ref name=":1" />