I want to share what, in my opinion, is the best summary of what capitalism is and the main misunderstandings surrounding it.

I found it in a Twitter thread by @ThetaVegaOption (originally in Spanish).

"The opposite of Capitalism is not Communism, it's Consumerism. The opposite of Communism is Anarchism.

Both Communism and Anarchism are modes of social organization, while Capitalism and Consumerism are techniques for the systematic creation and destruction of wealth.

That's why there can be a country like China that internally organizes itself socially as a communist country but uses capitalist techniques to create wealth for its citizens. And it's not contradictory at all.

Capitalism itself is neutral. When a person, often without economic education, refers pejoratively to 'capitalism,' they are actually referring to the decline of values in the West. Capitalist techniques serve our values, not the other way around."