Status and Comfort, not Survival or Power
I believe that capitalism is a powerful and necessary technology.
However, I also believe that the benefits of capitalism do not arise from behavior at the extremes.
Few, if any, of the benefits of capitalism arise from what people do to merely survive, or what people do to turn a mega-fortune into a super-duper-mega-fortune.
The poor seek survival. The super-rich seek power. The people in between seek status and comfort.
That is where capitalism works... people with enough security to make meaningful choices seeking more possessions or statuis or comfort. Give everyone a baseline of medicare and a humble trailer and enough food to eat and most will still crave more money, and they will be industrious to better their lot in relative terms. Not everyone will, but most will. And those few who are content with a simple minimalist existence, that's cool.
No American has ever invented some useful new product or service or method in order to survive. "My family is starving. I better go to the garage and invent the personal computer."
And personal financial empires are not fonts of the kind of innovation that capitalism is praised for. After one has their first billion it is possible to use money to make money, rather than using sweat, ingenuity and all those other capitalist virtues.
The modern mixed-economy welfare state really is a good thing, if properly implemented. Take from the rich, give to the poor, let the people in the middle do their thing.