Fact-Checking Capitalism

Has capitalism lifted the world out of poverty, or did it just pull its usual scam of stepping in at the last minute and taking credit for the work of someone/something else? Fun fact: those who protest that America's economy is a disaster because it's not REAL capitalism, that a REAL free market would be positively utopian! are no different than those who whine that the excesses of Stalinism and Maoism can't be blamed on communism because those regimes weren't REAL communism. These economic theories are great in theory, but as soon as humans get involved, the notion of a "perfect" free market flies out the window to land on the same trash-heap of history as "perfect" communism, both ideas unworkable by all but the most "perfect" human beings.
The answer, as usual, is something in between - a hybrid with elements of both socialism and capitalism - but don't tell that to the rabid Randian ideologues running the US economy into the ground. As neoliberal austerity dines on the last vestiges of our humanity, Americans have lost the ability to understand anything more nuanced than brute force.