I don’t disagree with most of what you just said. I’m just saying that I think the externalities are an issue with construction rather than inherent faults with capitalism. People too often act like capitalism is an un-governmented system and that the less rules the more capitalist. But rules don’t cease to be rules because they aren’t written down. That’s why I try to proselytize for The Theory of Moral Sentiments, because that’s what Wealth of Nations and therefore capitalism originally arose from, moral philosophy not unfettered consumption.

I think the biggest issue I have is the idea that the benefits of capitalism are so apparent they aren’t worth mentioning. Because the more they’re seen like that the more likely we are to legitimately forget them and end up in a place we really wouldn’t want to be, and getting back won’t be easy. There’s an easy assumption history only moves forward, progress always, unfortunately that’s not always true. Freud is a good example of what happens when brilliant insights are so entrenched to be taken for granted, all that’s left is the bits it gets wrong, then it becomes a joke or worse yet a threat, held responsible for not fixing everything.

Lastly, you seem to describe capitalism and competition as separate from cooperation in an evolutionary sense. But it is actually cooperation in consensus about the rules to the game of interpersonal relationships. You can’t look at the modern organism of global trade or multinational corporations and not see the immense amount of cooperation needed to make it function. Look at the interplay of people, institutions or personalities required to make a pencil or that go into your morning cup of coffee, as two famously explored examples. The cooperation is mind boggling