The overall aim of capitalist production, under competitive pressure, is (a)

to maximise net profit income (or realise a net superprofit) as much as possibl
e, through cutting production costs, increasing sales, and monopolisation of mar
kets and supply, (b) capital accumulation, to acquire productive and non-product
ive assets, and (c) to privatize both the supply of goods and services and their
consumption. The larger portion of the surplus product of labor must usually be
reinvested in production, since output growth and accumulation of capital mutua
lly depend on each other.
Out of preceding characteristics of the capitalist mode of production, the b
asic class structure of this mode of production society emerges: a class of owne
rs and managers of private capital assets in industries and on the land, a class
of wage and salary earners, a permanent reserve army of labour consisting of un
employed people, and various intermediate classes such as the self-employed (sma
ll business and farmers) and the new middle classes
(educated or skilled professionals
on higher salaries).
The finance of the capitalist state is heavily dependent on levying taxes fr
om the population and on credit; that is, the capitalist state normally lacks an
y autonomous economic basis (such as state-owned industries or landholdings) tha
t would guarantee sufficient income to sustain state activities. The capitalist
state defines a legal framework for commerce, civil society and politics, which
specifies public and private rights and duties, as well as legitimate property r
elations.
Capitalist development, occurring on private initiative in a socially unco-o
rdinated and unplanned way, features periodic crises of over-production (or exce
ss capacity). This means that a critical fraction of output cannot be sold at al
l, or cannot be sold at prices realising the previously ruling rate of profit. T
he other side of over-production is the over-accumulation of productive capital:
more capital is invested in production than can obtain a normal profit. The con
sequence is a recession (a reduced economic growth rate) or in severe cases, a d
epression (negative real growth, i.e. an absolute decline in output). As a corol
lary, mass unemployment occurs. In the history of capitalist development since 1
820, there have been more than 20 of such crises; nowadays the under-utilisation
of installed productive capacity is a permanent characteristic of capitalist pr
oduction (average capacity utilisation rates nowadays normally range from about
60% to 85%).
In examining particular manifestations of the
articular regions and epochs, it is of course
se main defining criteria. But the exceptions
over time, the exceptional circumstances tend

capitalist mode of production in p

possible to find exceptions to the
prove the rule, in the sense that
to disappear.