American Capitalism

Capitalism is often thought of as an economic system in which private actors own and control property in accord with their interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society. The essential feature of capitalism is the motive to make a profit.

Unfortunately...  capitalism does not always serve the best interests of society but it always serves as a motive to make a profit.  In fact, making a profit is the single most important feature of capitalism and what draws people into the capitalistic form of employment, either as an entrepreneur, as a owner of a factory or some form of enterprise, as a college graduate, or even as a common laborer or factory worker.

In capitalism, workers earn their wages from a company and not from the government for essentially not working at all.

Stockholders provide the necessary capital (funds) that enable for businesses to expand and grow and in return they are provided with a quarterly dividend and a potential growth of their stock in case they ever wanted to sell what they owned.

The downside of this arrangement is that companies oftentimes make decisions based upon what is in the best interest of the stockholder not necessarily what might be in the best interest of the company's employees or their future...  especially when two companies decide to merge together in order to improve economies of scale and raise their stock prices...  they no longer need all the employees of both companies...  so, there are typically layoffs.

RESULTS:  

Winners are the stockholders of the new company and its surviving employees

Losers are those who lost their jobs for one reason or another

NOTE:  Employees learn to stab each other in the back in order to protect their current and future positions with the company, leaving a bitter taste in everyone's mouth and a desire to finally retire as quickly as one can...