I honestly think a lot of people, particularly self-labelled socialists, have a misguided view of capitalism because they've only ever participated in a fiat economy. This has been on my mind for a while.

Numbers don't lie: for most of history, capitalism lifted up the poor the most. In times of prosperity when everyone was employed and wages trended up, the once poor became the middle class, and the middle class became the nouveau riche.

But all that wealth was in gold, not paper.

It's only since the dominance of fiat money that this has changed.