Whenever I hear the word "capitalism", I interpret it as "private ownership" by default. I have to remind myself they probably mean the "Laissez Faire" flavor of capitalism. It screws with me sometimes.
The difference being, to achieve full Communism you have to kill everyone or enslave them completely such that they have no rights. Stalin, Mao, Lenin, Pol Pot, Fidel, Kim il-Sung - they all gave it their best try.
And your comparison isn't accurate at all. There are obvious and often massive differences between America's economic models of 1825, 1910, 1960, and 2014. 2014 isn't in any respect similar to the 1825 or 1910 versions. To argue that America in 2014 is highly Capitalistic, is to argue that Capitalism is compatible with a government system taking 40% of the economy through taxation, massive wealth redistribution, government interference in essentially every sector, nationalization (quasi or total) of core economic segments, welfare programs sprawling to hundreds of billions in cost, tens of thousands of regulations covering every field, and on and on - basically it's like saying that Capitalism can be anything. It can't, it's a specific type of model.
