Every time I read the standard arguments in support of capitalism (and usually against socialism), I think of the plethora of examples where capitalists behave badly ...
It's way worse than you know.
I was watching a TV show the other day about a guy who has bought and sold classic cars for over 30 years. And he is now a very wealthy man. He does work hard, and he knows his business very well. He knows exactly what every classic car on his lot is worth in his market, and he has hundreds of them.
A guy comes to him looking to buy a classic car, and picks one out that he likes. The lot owner tells the camera man that the car is worth $15,500 and that he has about $12,000 in the car (the buyer does not hear this), and then the 'negotiating' begins. The seller says he wants $22,000. The buyer says he only planned to pay $15,000. So they haggle, and eventually they agree on $18,000, because the buyer does not know that that car is really worth $15,500. So he thinks he did OK at $18,000.
So what actually happened, is that the seller exploited the buyer's lack of expertise on the price of classic cars, and used it to take an extra $3,000 from him.
This is called GREED by any definition of that term: taking as much as one can get, by whatever means possible, at the expense of someone else. And yet in our culture, this is just thought to be normal business practice. We call it "commerce". But it's not commerce, it's EXPLOITATION. Commerce is people trading goods and services among each other with the intent of increasing the value for those on
both sides of the trade. Exploitation is trading with the intent of taking as much as one can possibly get, while giving as little as possible in return. In a word, that is GREED, in action. And our culture is so enamored with greed as a virtue that we can't even see the difference between commerce and exploitation, even though the former is good for everyone, while the latter benefits only the most greedy, cunning, and selfish among us.
And this is my fundamental problem with capitalism: that it rewards our WORST inclinations with ever increasing wealth and power. Thereby enabling the very people among us that we would LEAST want to enable, while it punishes those among us that we ought to be putting in positions of leadership, and looking to for inspiration. Capitalism is nothing more than systematized greed. And greed poisons and ruins everything it touches. Our nation is destroying itself with it's unfettered greed, and the worse things get, the more frightened and greedy we become. It's a self-perpetuating disease and it's going to destroy us.