The debate over capitalism and socialism has been going on for very long time. Is capitalism superior to socialism, or is socialism superior to capitalism? This question is frequently brought up and there have been many arguments about it. There are many people who think capitalism is the best economic system, while many others think there is nothing better than a socialist nation. Though some people think socialism is good, today, capitalism is the superior system and America is one example of its on-going success. Capitalism is good for industrialized nations like America because, as seen in America, there is low unemployment, low interest rates, high standards of living, and companies are using technology and creating high quality products.
Capitalism is an economic system in which there is private ownership of industry and freedom of competition which prices, production, and distribution of wealth is made and maintained by individuals or corporations. "Capitalism means the complete separation of economy and state" (Engardio, p. 2). But this separation is just an aspect of what capitalism is based upon, which is individual rights. Capitalism is the only system based on individual rights and that means that each and every person is the owner of his own life and can do whatever he chooses to do in his life as long as it does not violate the rights of others. .
In a capitalist society the participation of government is limited. The government would only be used to protect people's individual rights. "The only purpose of the government would be to protect its citizens from force or fraud" (Shadab, p.2). The ways in which the government will help is creating a police force to protect individual rights at home, creating a military to protect citizen rights from foreign forces, and a court system to create contracts and to settle disputes between citizens. "Since rights can only be violated by initiating force, the government would only use force in retaliation of those who initiated it" (Newcombe, p.