Image Source: http://iconbronze.com/Booker%20T%20Washington%20Bronze%20Statue%20Monument.htm. One of the foremost leaders of the African-American community, Booker T. Washington was a great educator and orator who founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, now known as the Tuskegee University.
Private property. In a capitalist economy, people have rights to the fruit of their labor and whatever other property they acquire through legal means. Property includes a person's life (we own our own bodies) and liberty as well as physical possessions. Alienable property--possessions--can be sold or leased to others.
A market economy is an economic system in which individuals own most of the resources - land, labor, and capital - and control their use through voluntary decisions made in the marketplace. It is a system in which the government plays a small role. In this type of economy, two forces - self-interest and competition - play a very important role. The role of self interest and competition was described by economist Adam Smith over 200 years ago and still serves as foundational to our understanding of how market economies function.