Hi , I can respond to your side question to some extent . is our understanding of basic economics rooted fundamentally in capitalism ? In general , economics can be split into two main branches mainstream and heterodox . Mainstream economics could roughly be said to study capitalism , and this is the economics which is widely taught across many universities . Heterodox economics includes the rest of the methodologies which are outside mainstream economic thought . Critiques of capitalism fall in this category . Socialist economics also falls in this category , but is not necessarily a critique of capitalism . Source does that give Leftist critiques of capitalism some clout ? Leftist critiques is a very vague qualifier . The left has been associated with many economic theories to a varying degree . Do critiques of capitalism have some clout ? Yes , there are universities that teach this . Naturally this means there are educated economists who defend heterodox theories , Richard Wolff is one who springs to mind . I guess my advice would be to do some research from multiple economic theories and then try to reason from first principles yourself . There are many great arguments out there for and against capitalism .