> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://glossary.ecsa.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://glossary.ecsa.io/capitalism.md).

# Capitalism

A decentralized economy with centralized state and money issuance that is driven by private property and the pursuit of profit. Financially, a system with hierarchical financial institutions and assets defined and measured by reference to what creates profit. The result: becoming-money of all social wealth. As such, fundamentally a wasteful, fragile & unstable economic system: a cultural-financial asset in decline. Dangerous in the way being long capitalism aggressively shorts the environment and the qualitative dimensions of our life and society.