biswa,
i think, as long as humans are allive, capitalism will live.
as i see it, capitalism itself has had a life of only 300 years or so, since the first industrial revolution led by england in the 1700s with coal generated steam being the primary mover of energy.
prior to that, it was an agrarian economy, all wealth owned by the king or the landed gentry or the church or its equivalent across the world.
the early 20th century made one grand and several copy cat attempts to build an economy and prosperity based on idealism ie communism. and it failed. failed abjectly, in the light of concentrated attack by capitalism, to such an extent, that today a distant island called cuba, is the sole communist country left, and that too, i feel, not for long.
meanwhile, captitalism was evolving though from the first edition of adam smith. germany, if i remember right, under bismarck, was the first, to put leash on unbridled capitalism, with state intervened pensions, holidays and medical care.
shades of communism or socialism, some might say. others might say that these are chapters off marx's das kapital. whatever it may be, capitalism shamelesss borrowed the best features of communism, and while managing to maintain the engine of wealth creation, attempted not to reduce the variation of wealth, but to provide the poorest of the poor, with the minimum needed, to keep him quiet, if not satisfied.
post war europe went one further step - it included free education, healthcare and pension at 60 years for all. from 1950s to 2000, i think, europe was closest to heaven on earth, with its widespread prosperity, freedom of movement of people and above all provided such an upward mobility for its white citizens, that they had to import labour from other countries to do the lower end jobs.
now for various reasons, we think capitalism is in crisis. why? not because anyone is going to go hungry in europe or the usa. but because there is 10% unemployment? in the usa? but so what? germany for 10 years post reunion dealt with 10+% unemployment and nothing untoward happened. the usa has had low employment levels only since the post second world war build up of highways which provided a fillip to massive state aided construction and kept the returning soldiers, those who did not take advantage of state funded college education, busy till other industries came upto speed.
recently there was an article that the usa consumer spending only 2.7% on chinese goods and that 55% is service produced in the usa
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: "Made-in-China" Only 2.7% of U.S. Spending; Really? What Does It Mean? Inflationists Take Note
but this marginal 1.3% has resulted in the closure of key usa industries which employed a couple of million folks or so. the first group to get hit, was union labour - those fatcat uaw auto workers, who came hangovered to work on monday with such regularity that a new car model, 'monday morning made' came into the english usage. also to pay for their viagra and divorce lawyers, the union bargained and won.
what was lost was their jobs, because the average joe american did not want to subsidize these workers. likewise happened to rubbermaid workers and so many other usa brand names. i think, it was the capitalist wall street plot to destroy the strong union movement, with much more finesse than what happened in margaret thatcher's britain, where she used the iron fist.
by and large, the key usa electorate, ie the farmers have been left intact. even though the farmers are a minority in the voting league, they are spread in across the entire usa, and able to elect senate and representatives way out of what their numbers warrant. wall street is intact. the entitled middle class of white retirees, professionals, armed services are intact.
so who lost? the afro americans, mexicans, the illegal immigrants who did the construction labour. and the unionized whites. the establishment inthe usa is not shedding much tears for these folks. if at all anything, the ruling class has snipped off obama's high flying feathers, and he is in danger of losing his job 2012. guess who is going to win - the likes of nikki haley, michelle bachmann or sarah palin or their male clones. all of these are mouthpieces of the purist form of capitalism, among whose top commandment is balanced budget, followed by shrinking government, and no government entitlements to the poor ('let them eat cake' eh!!)
so, i think, the usa capitalism is not only alive, but kicking, and through creation of the crisis, which is their own making, and greed, they have ensured what little state aided assistance for the weaker sections existed in the usa, will now be slowly but definitely choked out of the much needed $$$ oxygen and hence die unfunded and uncared.
if one looks across the pond, most of europe has abandoned the post war social democratic ideals of a classless society. today europe too, is a pale but imitation of usa, with inner city ghettos populated by coloured folks, surrounded by gated communities of prosperous whites. why should the french whites give up their privleged living to subsidize and bring up the standard of an arab immigrant. only to see, more of them cross the mediterranean and swarm the public welfare system.
biswa, you asked and this is my answer. this is not a statement of belief. more a statement of fact, as i see it. living in canada, just north of the usa, with most of its social welfare net still standing intact. not sure how long though, for once uncle sam turns his mean eyes on his timid northern neighbour, we too will wilt, and let our capitalist quislings call the shots and try to grab power. time alone will tell
for now, for want of any other alternative, capitalism is on another chapter to rule and let no one else rule. atleast for 25 years, when china meets its first major crisis. who know what the chinese will come up with as altnernative?