Speakeasy: McCain Calls Obama a "Socialist".

Socialism vs Capitalism

In reply to: "Spreading the wealth is socialism." by Kees Bakker 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and the creation of an egalitarian society.[1][2] Modern socialism originated in the late nineteenth-century working class political movement. Karl Marx posited that socialism would be achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution which represents the transitional stage between capitalism and communism.

Socialists mainly share the belief that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital, and creates an unequal society. All socialists advocate the creation of an egalitarian society, in which wealth and power are distributed more evenly, although there is considerable disagreement among socialists over how, and to what extent this could be achieved.

Linguistically, the contemporary connotation of the words socialism and communism accorded with the adherents' and opponents' cultural attitude towards Religion. In Christian Europe, of the two, communism was believed the atheist way of life.
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They make capitalism too complicated in the wiki. It's simple. What's mine is mine, what's yours is yours, and if you want some of mine, make me a deal I can't resist. If there's something of yours I want, I'll pay the price that will remove it from you. If both of us like that arrangement we may decide to produce even more for others who will make us a deal we find acceptable. The part of government is to make sure the transfer of goods is honest, not by stealing, fraud, other such. Govt can also provide means for all parties, such as roads, rails, ports, etc. The advantage of a worker economy over a slave economy is you only need to pay the workers when they are actually working. In a slave economy, you provide even if slaves aren't working, which is sort of like welfare when no one's working. Failure to work in capitalism will result in poverty, which provides the desired impetus to work instead of slothfulness. Those who are truly unable to work can then be provided for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
Capitalism is the economic system in which the means of production are owned by private persons, and operated for profit[1] and where investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are predominantly determined through the operation of a free market[2], rather than by central economic planning. Capitalism is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and corporations to trade, incorporate, employ workers, and use money provided by central banks, in goods, services (including finance), labor and land.[2] In theory, production and distribution in a capitalist system are governed by the free market rather than state regulation,[3] with state action confined to defining and enforcing the basic rules of the market[4] though the state may provide a few basic public goods and infrastructure.

The "capitalist mixed economy" is the main capitalistic system, where the state intervenes in market activity and provides some services. Other systems include laissez-faire, where the state plays a minimal role and anarcho-capitalism where the market and private enterprise are completely free from the state which is nonexistent. During the last century capitalism has been contrasted with centrally planned economies, such as Marxian economies.