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Re:Why is America so rich? by hasenj on Friday November 12, 2010 @07:25AM (#1897413)
Err, what's the other definition? "allowing people to sell stuff and earn money?", that's a very old notion, like I already said, it's not exclusive to North America, and it's not a product of the European Renaissance, it existed more than a thousand years ago.
Re:Why is America so rich? by anamax on Friday November 12, 2010 @12:51PM (#1898459)
> that's a very old notion, like I already said

So? That doesn't imply that your definition of capitalism is correct.

> it's not exclusive to North America,

No one said that capitalism was exclusive to NA, was invented by Europe, or is new.

That said, capitalism isn't binary - it's a range and you left out important details.

For example, what does "allowing" mean? What people? What stuff?

The standard definition, cribbed from Wikipedia is "Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit; decisions regarding supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are made by private actors in the market".

Re:Why is America so rich? by hasenj on Friday November 12, 2010 @01:41PM (#1898642)
Propriety software is privately owned by the makers of the software, they control everything.

GNU and the FSF were born because this model was deemed unethical by RMS and many who basically agree with him.

Re:Why is America so rich? by anamax on Friday November 12, 2010 @05:31PM (#1899568)
>> Propriety software is privately owned by the makers of the software, they control everything.

> GNU and the FSF were born because this model was deemed unethical by RMS and many who basically agree with him.

Actually, free software is owned and controlled by its creators. They determine the terms and if you don't like those terms, you don't get to use it.

You seem to think that "control" implies a particular class of terms. It doesn't. Control is actually the ability fo the creator to choose whatever terms she likes.

BTW - RMS is an American and got his seed funding from Americans....