A capitalist system is an economic system in which production and exchange of commodities, services, and labor is primarily determined by private ownership of the means of production and the accumulation of profits by the owners of these means. It is driven by private actors engaging in the pursuit of individual wealth to the exclusion of any other values, and ultimately aiming to extract and accumulate as much surplus value from workers as possible. Thus, it is primarily characterized by social and economic inequality and the concentration of power in the hands of a small, elite class of capitalists.

See also: neoliberal capitalism, late-stage capitalism, post capitalism, economic system, capitalist modernity