There have been so many broad, and often disingenuous debates about whether capitalism "works, or doesn't." The issue is actually what a society allows to be incentives within a free market.
Here are the subversive incentives:
Military: Never-ending war is good for business.
Health Care:
- Keeping people sick.
- Denying coverage to not have to pay for treatment.
- Keeping a quantity over quality reimbursement system.
Prisons: Privatizing prisons has made locking people up a financial incentives. (No surprise inmate headcounts have skyrocketed recently).
Financial system: "take as much risk as you want because we will bail you out if you mess up."
There are many more examples. The way I see it, cutting through all the right-wing rhetorical nonsense about government being bad, the truth is, the government should set price signals based on what is good for the society as a whole. As we are set to move on to energy policy, I am waiting to see subsidies to oil companies being replaced with subsidies for alternative energy, and start setting the right incentives for our energy policy.