Songfacts®:

• Also known as "Middle Class, Socialist Brat," "Capitalism" was written by Oingo Boingo leader Danny Elfman, who was trying to get under the skin of certain entitled, idealistic young people who believe in the distribution of wealth.
  
  "There's a lot of people here with a lot of different political persuasions," he said when introducing the song at the US Festival in 1983. "We're not going to tell you which one's right or which one's wrong, or try to preach to you, but for all the young socialists out there today, I hope you practice what you preach. This song's about one who doesn't."
• "Capitalism" is part of the first Oingo Boingo album, Only A Lad, released in 1981. They had been around since 1972, but until 1979 they were a cabaret act known as the Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo. Based in Los Angeles, they built a following there and became favorites on the influential radio station K-Rock. They had a minor hit in 1985 with "Weird Science," but never got to the next level of popularity. The was fine with Elfman, who was concurrently making music for films like Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Summer School and Beetlejuice. The band split up in 1995.
• There's been some debate as to whether or not the song is satire or sincere, as Elfman sings quite convincingly of the benefits of free markets:
  
  There's nothing wrong with capitalism
  There's nothing wrong with free enterprise
  Don't try to make me feel guilty
  I'm so tired of hearing you cry
  
  In a 2014 interview with the A/V Club, he called it an "in-your-face facetious jab," and compared it to Stephen Colbert's right-wing character on his late-night show The Colbert Report, basically saying the song is meant to mock the narrator in convincing fashion. In that same interview, Elfman described his politics as "very left."
• "Capitalism" made the 2006 list of the 50 greatest conservative rock songs published by the National Review. Danny Elfman explained that he was trying to provoke both sides.
  
  "I just basically make fun of everybody," he told the A/V Club. "So even if my politics were left, I still would really mock political correctness and kind of organized left-wing politics as frequently as I would the right. To me, all organized, political groups have a sense of absurdity to them. It's open to be mocked or satirized. If anything, I consider myself part of nothing, and any organized group was fair game to mockery, from my vantage point."