David Simon described the problem very clearly:<p><pre><code>    That may be the ultimate tragedy of capitalism in our time, that it
    has achieved its dominance without regard to a social compact, without
    being connected to any other metric for human progress. [...]

    Capitalism stomped the hell out of Marxism [...] but the great irony of it
    is that the only thing that actually works is not ideological, it is impure,
    has elements of both arguments and never actually achieves any kind of
    partisan or philosophical perfection. It&#x27;s pragmatic, it includes the best
    aspects of socialistic thought and of free-market capitalism and it works
    because we don&#x27;t let it work entirely. [...]

    Labour doesn&#x27;t get to win all its arguments, capital doesn&#x27;t get to.
    But it&#x27;s in the tension, it&#x27;s in the actual fight between the two, that
    capitalism actually becomes functional, that it becomes something that every
    stratum in society has a stake in, that they all share.
</code></pre>
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;2013&#x2F;dec&#x2F;08&#x2F;david-simon-capitalism-marx-two-americas-wire" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;2013&#x2F;dec&#x2F;08&#x2F;david-simon-cap...</a><p>(the original talk <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=DNttT7hDKsk" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=DNttT7hDKsk</a> )