word length is a better measure of brevity a lead section should not get bogged down trying to be too descriptive too prescriptive or critiquing its conventional definition you could just say capitalism generally refers to an economic and social system in which the means of production are predominantly privately owned and operated for profit investment distribution income production pricing and other economic activity are usually determined by the owners of these means of production according to their own self interest almost all countries in the world have adopted elements of capitalism in their economic systems