Pros: Healthy economy, better living standard for all, no coercion
Cons: While it provides, in my view, a satisfactory general level of happiness, it may not maximize happiness. The poor are made economically better off, but their inequality may hurt them socially
Einherjar wrote:mass amount of wealth in the hands of the few.
Agreed, but this is a pro, not a con. The great majority of wealth held by the rich minority is in the form of capital. Rather than have a "tragedy of the commons" where everyone owns this capital, relatively few people own it and have a strong interest in its health and growth. Because of well-maintained and efficient capital, the wealth of society is increased and everyone benefits.
LOLL..unemployment is needed by capitalism to be competitive, to have a reserve work force and to keep wages low. Unemployment is biggest in capitalist free trade countries..
There is no evidence that I know of that points to a conspiracy of capitalists to maintain high unemployment. In a truly free market, such a conspiracy would never hold together. The incentive for companies to cheat is too great, since if they can hire someone who contributes X value to the firm and pay him <X wages, they would make a nice profit.
The environment is largely ruined as it only second to the need to make capital and profits.
No, there is strong incentive to preserve the environment with the profit incentive. Land that is preserved well is worth more and can be sold for higher profit. A company that owns land will usually profit more in the long term if he maintains that land. For example, in the US something like 70% of the forests we had in 1607 have been preserved. Loggers replant and take care of the land, because that is necessary for long term viability as a company. Also, there is a strong incentive to minimize waste of natural resources. Finding ways to use fewer natural resources means less cost and more profit.
Compare this to the USSR, which devasted the environment due to tragedy of the commons.
The large amounts of capital enables capitalism to have diffused propaganda creating a conservative society, destroying creativity and progressiveness.
Did you just make this up off the top of your head? Capitalism is responsible for a huge amount of progression in science and technology, due to the profit incentive.
Corporations with high capital monopolize certain sectors which become inefficient as there would be no competition.
Socialism and mixed economies create inefficient state monopolies. And inefficient market monopolies are largely a myth. If you look at the records, "robber barons" and such actually contributed greatly to lowering the cost of their products and improving efficiency.
The division gap between rich and poor always increases because the rich has a bigger chance to invest and thus gain profits than the poor.
Doesn't matter, since the poor generally benefit from the investment and profits of capitalists. This is because the profit motive guides the rich to create the most efficient production possible. And with more efficient production comes more and better goods, which are consequently lowered in price due to the law of supply and demand. The poor are then able to afford cheaper and better goods and are better off.