Asklemmy

No. The definition of capitalism has been utterly confused by politicians who couldn't steal and corrupt under its basic principles. Which makes it really freaking hard to explain the best practices for economics (as in what has been proven over and over again to work best overall) when every word is overlayed with a false definition. In reality democratic socialism is just a marketable name for what capitalism really is.

Capitalism is the idea that if the government doesn't own everyone, and everyone is free to work for their own living, and (here is the key part) there are laws and regulations to prevent anyone from taking advantage of anyone else (that's the free market part) then everyone will work together to create the best economy possible. One where there is no central planning (as opposed to a king appointing a Lord over an area), just everyone free to do whatever they do best.

Our current economy isn't capitalism. It is too far to the right into oligarchy (which gives corrupt control to a few and everyone else is unable to participate in the market freely) to be a free market economy. We absolutely must move to the left, introducing regulations and investing in public infrastructure and education to return to real capitalism. But I doubt there is any chance of that in our lifetimes. Not without some terrible revolution and all the failures that will bring before we return to sanity.

To be clear, I am not arguing for anything you probably associate with capitalism as being good or best. I am arguing that no one ever should have associated those things with capitalism, and that the misdirection was created decades ago so the wealthy could subjugate us under a manufactured income gap and economic oppression.