Capitalism is an economic model that calls for control of the economy by individual households and privately owned businesses. It is one of two main economic models. The other is central planning, which calls for government control of the economy.
No purely capitalist or completely centrally planned economy has ever existed. The economic systems of all nations use some government control and some private choice. But economies that rely mostly on private decisions are usually described as capitalist. Such economies include those of the United States and Canada. The former Soviet Union and many nations of Eastern Europe once relied heavily on central planning. Such economies are sometimes called socialist or Communist. Many other nations rely less on capitalism than the United States does but more than the Soviet Union did.
