On October 2, 2011, Nobel Laureate economist and leading inequality expert Joseph Stiglitz spoke at Occupy Wall Street. As the Zuccotti Park crowd echoed his speech (no bullhorns allowed), Stiglitz explained the current state of America’s socioeconomic system:

There’s a system where we socialize losses and privatize gains. That’s not capitalism, that’s not a market economy, that’s a distorted economy and if we continue with that we won’t succeed in growing, and we won’t succeed in creating a just society.

If Occupy could have just one influential supporter, then red rover, red rover, send Joe Stiglitz over. Not only is Stiglitz one of the world’s leading economists, he’s a passionate and articulate advocate for a more egalitarian, democratic society and moderator of THE GREAT DIVIDE, an ongoing New York Times op-ed series about inequality.

Soon after Stiglitz’s speech, ThinkProgress, FOX News, and The New York Times published articles defending Occupy Wall Street as pro-capitalism, an effort to save capitalism from crony capitalism.

Fast-forward to 2013. Nearly two years after Stiglitz’s Zuccotti Park speech defined the USA’s current socioeconomic system as “not capitalism,” Occupy Wall Street honored its second anniversary and continuing campaign with a blog post titled “Our One Demand Is To End Capitalism.”

These competing definitions of capitalism unnecessarily fracture proponents of democracy into opposing factions.

Occupy Wall Street wants to end a socioeconomic system that one of the world’s leading economists says doesn’t exist. That’s a problem. Until we heal capitalism’s definitional divide, Americans will continue to suffer a dangerous march toward oppression.

Three Definitions of Capitalism

1. Textbook Capitalism

By definition, capitalism requires two things: one, competition; and two, a for-profit system of production. This is the definition of capitalism used by Stiglitz and most academics.

When Stiglitz says that the USA doesn’t have capitalism as an economic system, he’s referring to a lack of promoted competition. Like a game of baseball, we need rules and regulations to encourage fair play. If capitalism actually existed in the United States, fair play rules would require publicly financed elections, truly progressive tax policies, limits on government subsidies to big business, restrictions on predatory financial practices, and bans on gerrymandering.

Additionally, when the general public lacks access to the necessities required for democratic participation, then those necessities would be rights. In 2013, those rights include universal health care, publicly financed college education, and promotion of entrepreneurial endeavors. Stiglitz reminds us that a system designed to suppress economic participation and upward mobility is not capitalism.

2. Anti-Capitalist Capitalism

“Au contraire, mon frère,” says the anti-capitalist Occupier. Capitalism was always a poisoned apple, destined to corrode America from its core. The natural state of capitalism will invariably lead to oppression because those in power will bend the government to best serve their interests, not those of the people.

Anti-capitalists prefer to think of the United States as a really existing capitalist democracy or an example of actually existing capitalism: Capitalism can only result in crony capitalism, a synergistic fusion of business and government. With the current system growing increasingly untenable, anti-capitalists might be right about capitalism’s inherent rottenness. But the point here is that we shouldn't focus on semantics. Call it capitalism or lack of capitalism, the current system is rotten.

Deeply rooted in anarchy (not the Sex Pistols kind of anarchy), anti-capitalists want to eliminate the structural inequalities that demand forced wage labor so true freedom of association can allow individuals to engage in cooperative, cohesive living.

3. “Free Market” Capitalism

In direct opposition to textbook capitalism and anti-capitalist capitalism, “free market” capitalists claim that deregulation creates competition. In practice, deregulation opens up new avenues to profit for hegemonic corporations and solidifies their place in the market hierarchy. Anyone claiming that deregulation in an already skewed economy increases market participation or democracy is either an idiot or an asshole, or both. Read more here.

Three definitions of capitalism. Surprisingly, anti-capitalists (Occupiers) and textbook capitalists (Stiglitz) have congruent goals, at least in the immediate time frame: implement public health care, end debt bondage, prevent future wars, end subsidies for big businesses, bail out the middle class, squish Washington’s corporate leaches. Anti-capitalists would like to nullify our financial system entirely, but since that likely can’t be accomplished without civil war or population-reducing catastrophe, our path forward must be incremental. Only through an educated, free society can “capitalism” evolve into something better.

If traditional capitalists and anti-capitalists want real change, we must put aside our squabbles with the dictionary and unite under the umbrella of furthering democracy.