Capitalists decide what to produce and how to produce it.
The production of goods and services generates incomes. Workers earn wages, bondholders are paid interest, landowners are paid rent, capitalists receive profit. The incomes that workers, landowners and capitalists receive forms the basis of their demand for goods and services. Whether we are describing the capitalisms of the past, analyzing the capitalisms of the present, or predicting the capitalisms of the future, we are essentially examining the interrelationships among markets, institutions and technology. These basic interrelationships are represented in the diagram below.