If you go to a purely Capitalistic society, it is quite similar to what you would see in an aristocracy or Central American Banana Republics. A small group of people kicking ass economically, running the government behind the scenes to keep the money rolling in, and making policies that hurt any potential competition.
That's called crony capitalism, which is quite a different thing than proper Capitalism.
C'mon man...be realistic. Until FDR instituted some....and I emphasize the wire SOME....Socialism into our society with the New Deal, America was Very Much a country of haves and have nots, and most of the have nots had next to nothing.
That small degree of Socialism kept people from starving, put people to work and ushered in decades of economic growth for most Americans. Labor Unions helped get American Workers good wages and benefits packages that included pensions. People worked hard and were fairly compensated....even non-union employers kept competitive with unionized employers because they didn't want their employees to unionize.
What happened? Unions got too big and powerful, ignoring the issues that businesses were having at the time and still demanding more....we also had that peaky oil embargo that ground our country to a standstill. Imports were making better products, especially in the auto industry, for much less than our Domestic manufacturers.
Those problems ushered in Ronald Reagan...who was brilliant with his theory if trickle down economics. The business community embraced him....seeing their chance to bust up the unions that were....even by my own admission....hurting American Business. Because of that opportunity, the business community gladly played along with Reagan and actually did trickle down.....
which leaves us the post-reagan era.....gradually, greed takes over...and by God it did. Labor in this country has seen it's wages virtually stagnated while the business community's has risen some 600%. The Conglomerate has lobbied for and received "free trade"agreements that does nothing but further hold American workers hostage and line their pockets oh-so-well.
You see....the problem with trickle down is that if you really want it to work, you have to make "trickling down" mandatory. Take Communism, as an example.....if you want it to work, you have to have a perfectly selfless society who doesn't care about having more than someone else, trickle down depends on the most ruthless and self serving of our society to do the right thing in regards to everyone else.
Neither system works.