> The main problem with capitalism is that someone other than the people doing the work get to decide how the work is done and how to spend the surplus of value that work generates.
I think that the main problem with capitalism is that a free market system (assuming it works, though it doesn't in practice because competition doesn't quite behave according to the abstract models) strives to maximize economic output rather than welfare. Some capitalists care enough to hope that a system that maximizes product would also improve welfare, but that is not the goal; at best, it's a desirable side effect. That is why many critics of capitalism point out that under capitalism, people serve the "economy" rather than the other way around.
I think that the main problem with capitalism is that a free market system (assuming it works, though it doesn't in practice because competition doesn't quite behave according to the abstract models) strives to maximize economic output rather than welfare. Some capitalists care enough to hope that a system that maximizes product would also improve welfare, but that is not the goal; at best, it's a desirable side effect. That is why many critics of capitalism point out that under capitalism, people serve the "economy" rather than the other way around.