Panzer,
I have an American collegue. Once he told me about his grandfather. He was working for a mining company in the mountains somewhere at the eastcoast. There was only one way to get to the mines, a railway, built and owned by the company. There was only one way to live, in the houses of the company. You could only buy in the company stores and the company sold you also your equipment. The company gave you not money but cards to pay at the company stores. He had to borrow money to buy the equipment and he was never able to pay everything back.
I would call this capitalism. But it did not increase the standard of living at least not for the workers. And created dependency.
Do not get me wrong. I am not talking about the US as it is today. I am talking about capitalism.