Ivor:

Come on. There is plenty of social theft in current capitalist societies, but the basic principles of capital deployment and development and profit do not require any participant to spend any of their resources on anything they don't want to. The tax system in the US does, however, require it -- it was perhaps the first major drift toward socialism. The Marxist system requires complete donation to the "common good" and fails thereby. Pure socialism stands between these two extremes.

Applying capitalist principles has the benefit of encouraging individual excellence for reward, an approach which appears to take human nature into account.

The United States these days is more of a socialized republic than a democracy, and is also a major node in an international mega-archy -- domination by the huge. This also brings about social theft, indirectly.

A