When people say that capitalism is "the problem," what they really mean is that they're opposed to the naturally unequal forces of a free-market (i.e. voluntary participation and product/service selection) based economy.

Capitalism is merely the scapegoat. People blame it for all sorts of evils having nothing to do with the way businesses are financed: poverty, inequality, racism, and a host of other societal ills that have more to do with government intrusion in the market, collusion between business and government, and individual personalities and drive.

Corporatism is a problem. Cronyism is a problem. The welfare state is a huge problem, and is, in fact, responsible for doing what slavery could not: breaking down black families and communities.

But capitalism is not a problem. It's certainly not the problem.

No, the problem is the mindshift away from individual freedom and choice toward a belief framework where freedom and choice are limited "for the greater good," supposedly to combat "inequality."

But again, inequality is not the problem. Humans being what they are, there will always be inequalities. We are not all born with the same measures of drive, talent, and ambition spread equally across the same spheres. (This is a good thing, but explaining it would send me into a tangent, so we'll save that for another day.)

No, inequality is not the thing against which vocal opponents of freedom fight, but inequality of outcome. There's a huge difference between those two concepts. One can be remedied by ensuring fairness within our legal justice system, the only place where every individual should, and can, be equal.

The other is founded on an unrealistic belief that everyone should, in the end, look, act, feel, and live exactly like everyone else.

But humans were never meant to blindly conform; it's simply not in our nature. And thus, attempting to force everyone to achieve a certain level of sameness (which is, if you'll notice, never precisely defined) merely results in everyone defaulting to the lowest common denominator of ignorance, stupidity, and poverty.

The best way to insure a fair playing field is through mechanisms deriving from individual freedom: voluntaryism, respect for the rights of others, a free and unregulated market (feuled by non-competitive capitalism, individual innovation, and an entrepreneurial spirit), and a strictly limited government (if government is needed at all, which it usually isn't).

Only through reducing barriers to individual achievement and progress can we truly be equal.