Reading Ha-Joon Chang was what sold me on the idea that capitalism is created and something we should only allow in a carefully controlled environment, not something to let run free. Let socialism build the bedrock of existance, of a good life, of opportunity. Only once there's a solid enough basis for everyone can you let capitalism run the rest of whatever people want to undertake.

Fundamentally both socialism and capitalism are things we must build and maintain. As a species I think we're good at the first but are terrible at the second part. Since capitalism is the aggressive one, usually it steadily increases its territory until groups of people or governments snap and go "enough's enough" and reign it in. My worry is that we've lost the ability to seriously slam our fist on the table to reign in capitalism since the eighties due to some combination of the paycheck-to-paycheck middle class, decreasing unions and bowling alone. But I'll freely admit that that's a gut feeling that I can't properly back up.