What is capitalism anyway?

This article explains it succinctly. See it for more detail than this brief excerpt:

"You can use 'capitalism' as the name either for an idealized free market system that has never existed in practice, or for the actually existing historical system that you’re an apologist for. You can’t do both. If you start with the corporate capitalism that Apple is part of, and then take away the historical legacy (and ongoing process!) of peasant land enclosure, colonialism and neo-colonialism, slavery, land and resource grabs, 'intellectual property' and other monopolies, and restrictions on the free movement and association of labor… well, you don’t have much left. If you want to argue that 'real capitalism has never existed,' and repeat 'That’s not capitalism, that’s corporatism!' like a broken record, fine. But you can’t turn around then and use the products of a transnational corporation like Apple as an example of capitalism. If you do, you’re either stupid or a liar. It’s that simple."