capitalism is an economic structure, not a political system. all government systems are, by their very nature, socialistic, in that whatever power they wield means that everyone shares in supporting that power. we have a representative republic for a political system, and the government is limited by the constitution to certain specific powers...18 of them i believe as listed in the constitution. well, that's supposed to be the limit, but of course over the years we've seen the government expand it's 'influence' and power into a number of other things. the balance of the constitution as originally ratified was all about personal, individual rights over which the government was to have no power.
regardless, the whole point of it all was to set all people free to live their lives freely without fear that the government would take what they have earned, or limit what they could think or do or say in any way. the point where all this would come together would be through the constitutional basis for the court system, through which conflicts between people would be resolved. this would include crimes and civil matters, and the law protected one and all by making it impossible for the government to influence such.
this all meant that there would be no communism/socialism/fascism or whatever else. you and i could work at what we wished, keep our gain, use it for whatever else we wanted. there was never any intention that the government would somehow manage our money or possessions, run our businesses, etc., because that would be blatantly unconstitutional. in fact, anyone who didn't want to work was welcome to not work, but that also included the okay for such people to simply do without food or shelter or anything else.
capitalism struggles only with two things. obviously, as noted, there is always the interraction of the government which produces problems with who is going to control what. this is true with any form of government, but a representative republic such as was set up here is far less intrusive than any other form of government, including a true democracy...which we are not. and that gives us the second problem for capitalism, which is simply the people...us. we want, even demand, certain things from business, and that problem grows larger as more and more people want jobs instead of being their own business people, running their own business. and then, of course, a two-pronged difficulty arises as anyone who works for someone else continually grows in dependence upon that business to both prosper and also to pay more. and finally, as industrial and technological advances come along and things grow more intricate, costs and prices rise, and there is the demand for more quality, etc.
this goes on and on, but the upshot is that most people who believe in their own personal freedoms start thinking of their rights as having something to do with things and their own control. bottom line, though, no matter what type government you have, or economic system, there is no right to eat or medical care or shelter or jobs or anything else. in socialistic systems, you get what is dictated by the power in force that you get. in capitalistic systems, you get what you earn.
is everything fair? of course not, but it's not because of the system. it's mostly because all of us are different...equal in the basic rights of life, liberty, and PURSUIT of happiness, but otherwise individual in our abilities and desires and so forth.
capitalism doesn't die, it's in all of us...in some of us more than others, of course. as for capitalism falling here in the united states, i doubt it. we keep on 'socializing' more and more things here, but the fact is simple. we keep choking real capitalism, starting with our demands for all sorts of safety nets and so on, and going from there into all sorts of regulation on business. i'd agree that it's good to keep things going in all ways such that prosperity is maintained at a high level, but remember something. the more we strangle business, the more we wind up with larger and more intrusive controls on our lives, which strangle us.
the country will disintegrate before capitalism does, though.