Another vulnerability of capitalism would be a situation in which owners put assets at risk, but turn to producers to compensate them in the event of a down-side outcome to their risk-taking.

<t>A great strength of capitalism is that it can encourage insightful risk-taking, to the benefit of all. Owners receive reward in exchange for identifying good places to put assets at risk; the placement of assets at risk in turn provides opportunities for producers to earn. An important vulnerabil...

<t>A slave does not exist in this simple model for capitalism. By definition, a person is an owner of an asset or a producer. Nothing precludes a person from playing the role of owner in one setting and producer in another. Simplicity can lead to tautology, of course--by this defintion, an asset is ...

<t>A very concise definition from Andre Jaun (fellow Quant): "At the core lies an idea that capital (indeed any kind of asset such as money, raw material, even patents) owned by an individual (the investor) can be lent to another (the entrepreneur) to produce a certain number of goods or services." ...