[neonstatic]

It's been 19 years. Since then an entire generation has been conditioned to think that saying something bad about capitalism earns them social points. I have seen it so many times - people, who don't even know what capitalism is, saying they are "fighting to bring it down" just because they think it sounds cool. They should read a bit about bureaucracy (Kafka) and gulags (a variety of authors) to get a hint what "bringing it down" leads to. The very same people are happy to be participants in capitalism if it earns them money.

> and saw the perpetrators get off scot-free?

And your argument is that the reason for that is free market and private property? I would suggest it might be corruption in the political system, which happens to be "a federal republic" (since we are discussing the US).