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Does capitalism promote better life for everyone?

I've heard it mentioned that capitalism leads to better economic conditions for all classes in society. Is this true? Or does capitalism favor the rich and wealthy landowners/businessman? Does every man acting for the improvement of his own lot in life, eventually lead to the enrichment of everyone's lives? Does capitalism favor better working conditions? Do capitalists favor 100% employment? What's the alternative to capitalism? How is it any better?

Public Comments

YES! "Big bad corporations" hire far more people than the unemployed do.
I'm quite the moron, so here goes. Seems to me, capitalism is where any person that can find a job and work hard at it can get paid, and thus improve their standard of living. Wealthy landowners/businessmen already have good jobs, which they may have worked hard to achieve. They work hard, they reap the benefits. That's capitalism. The enrichment of oneself may lead to the decay of someone else. You may take their job. Or not, you might open a business and offer more jobs, which will enrich. It depends. The better the working conditions, the better the workers work, I guess. Theoretically. 100% employment means everyone has a job, which helps the economy of the country, which is what capitalism seeks. Money.
Yes, capitalism provides a better life for everyone. Some people will benefit more than others, and in the short run some people may struggle, but everyone will benefit in the long run. It's very hard to do business if you are screwing your customers & employees, You won't have them for very long if you're not treating them right, unless the government has somehow created a situation where customers/employees have no other choices...that would be the opposite of capitalism. Some people do not want to work, even if they say they do. Some people only want certain jobs, and will not settle for a bad one until a better one comes along. There will always be some people in transition from job to job. 100% employment is probably impossible, for these & other reasons.
That reminds me of a quote from Winston Churchill. He said that Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. Or something like that.
"Everyone" is a hard measure; there are always winners and losers in life. But ultimately, capitalism produces greater wealth, opportunity and prosperity--and the vast majority of people in any society will benefit from that. Some may benefit more--the rich get really rich, but the poor don't get any poorer. Capitalism allows people the freedom to make decisions about what they want to consume--if you want a pair of size 9 converses in Red, you can find them. Good luck finding them in a planned economy, though. Eventually capitalism should improve working conditions--as people gain more wealth and education, they desire better working conditions. That's a good that is demanded, and will be produced. And no, 100% employment isn't good. Then laborers have all the power and businesses can't discipline, etc without fear of losing employees, and it will be difficult to find more in an economy with 100% employment. There should be 3 or 4% unemployment--a natural rate to account for people moving between jobs.
Capitalism in the form of a free market helps everyone. Socialism and Keynesiani ideas lead to inefficiencies that harm people. Read a couple of very fine articles that show that the current system is not very capitalist at all...more planned economy and favoring the wealthy. http://www.mises.org/story/2840 http://www.mises.org/story/2847 Mises.org has many daily articles from Austrian economists with decades of experience that you may like to take advantage of. Our US economy has been anything but free for the last 100 years with 50 years of heavy government involvement before that. The market our Fore Fathers envisioned has been strangled by corporate interest for too long. There needs to be liberty in the market as well as true liberty in the political spectrum to reconcile a sound society.
Yes its true if you believe it.