I'll go out on a limb here and defend capitalism where I think it works well -- for things that don't matter much. In a complex society with a plethora of consumer products, capitalism does a pretty good job of the manufacture and distribution of things like toasters, toilet paper, tin foil, tomatoes, tennis shoes, tampons, turkeys and turkey basters, t-shirts, towels, toothpaste and toothbrushes, tea, teacups and teapots, tables, turnips, TVs, TV dinners, TV trays, and TV remotes.

It would be a nightmare to try and centrally plan an economy to provide all of the items on the above list, and it would sap time and energy from planning things that really matter: health care, roads, education, housing -- you know, the things that people depend on.