Left Wing or Right Wing?

"Capitalism is an economic system, in which private individuals or businesses own capital goods. At the same time, business owners, (capitalist), employ workers (labour) who receive only wages; labour doesn’t own the means of production, but instead uses them, on behalf of the owners of capital"

This was the first definition of capitalism that comes up in Google when you type. “How do you define capitalism”

In my simple head, I take things back to basics. If you take the imaginary olden days when I lived in a clearing in the woods, I may have a cow and the cow produces milk. I maintain the cow by feeding it and looking after it and milking it, I have an excess of milk. My neighbour has an orchard of apple trees and I like apples and he likes milk. I exchange my excess milk for some of his excess apples.

What is occurring here is that I have an interest in acquiring apples. It’s a self interest. I want the apples for me and my family. My neighbour wants my milk for him and his family. We may barter over the volume of milk that I give in return for the weight of apples I receive, but we agree a deal in the end which is mutually acceptable to us both.

This is pure capitalism. This is what Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalism, proclaimed as the invisible hand, a metaphor for how, in a free market economy, self interested individuals operate through a system of mutual interdependence. We are both producing things which are useful for society, even though really I only care about my own well-being and how much stuff I can get in return for my excess milk.

So my simple example is capitalism. It is the very definition of the invisible hand explained by Adam Smith

But equally, my example, it’s also communism. How so? Well, in my example, the cow is owned by me. The orchard is owned by my neighbour, we're the workers putting effort into these things and we’re also the ones who control the capital involved, we receive the benefit from the output that we produce in excess of what we need.

Capitalism is seen as right-wing, communism is seen as left-wing, but my example, it’s both at the same time.

Anarchy is seen as left-wing, and my example is also this, self-governing people making voluntary choices without any state control whatsoever. This is the definition of anarchist politics.

Libertarianism is seen as right-wing, libertarianism is one where there is maximum autonomy for the individual from political freedoms and the encroachment of the state. This is also the same as my example, me and my neighbour are living in a world where our decisions are totally free from regulation and state interferance.

Capitalist Communist anarchism libertarianism, left wing and right wing both at the same time.