The only thing you've proven by linking to wikipedia is that you really don't have any idea what you're talking about. Capitalism WORKS for everyone, note the word WORKS. There's a growing subset of the population that doesn't want to work yet expects to taken care of. They have access to the same opportunities as any American citizen does, and the history of the USA is full of rags-to-riches stories where someone who started poor managed to make it to the top.
Poverty in the USA is nothing compared to the strife 99% of the people experience under a communist/socialist regime. Visited cuba lately?
Wealth grows as population grow and technological progress grows. I was talking about the global wealth concerned by the currency, not about the wealth of one perticuliar citizen.
Currency has "value" not "wealth". Wealth is a term to quantify the relative value of an individual or entity in terms of currency, i.e. Bob is worth $1 million or SomeCompany is a $10 billion company. Technology may aid in allowing more people to attain wealth, but technology itself is not required for people or businesses to gain wealth.
That's here that you're making a mistake.
Don't consider one loan. Consider the whole amount of money. Banks earn interest on every penny. It means the world is endebted to them of more than the total amount of money. Which means there is NO OTHER SOLUTION than to create money simply in order to repay the interests to the banks...
That money is taxed, as are citizens and businesses. Most of the money that banks lend is money borrowed from the US government, and so banks are essentially paying interest on that money. Currently in the US and other countries the central banks are undermining the economy with their "zero interest rate policies" (ZIRP), which has only caused massive equity (i.e. stocks) inflation.
If you want to say that central banks are a problem, then I'd agree with you. I also consider QE (quantitative easing) to be highly problematic and a terrible practice. QE is often referred to as "printing money" but in reality it is done to create the illusion of a 'healthy' economy by flooding it with cheap money via bond buy-backs. QE coupled with ZIRP is an economy killer, both the USA, EU and Japan are muddled in this due to the leftist morons that have been running the show for far too long.
Only a blind man would say that governments as they are now aren't the root of 90% of our problems. 100% of them are coming from gov, banks and companies associations. Being a socialist doesn't mean not understanding this, socialism and communism ARE NOT linked to governments contrary to what every capitalist believes.
There is very little difference between socialism and communism in practice; the primary difference is that communism is a forceful, usually violent, takeover (Vietnam) while socialists are elected (Nazis). They are indeed a system of government that holds onto power by ensuring that economic liberty never happens.
When economic liberty is eliminated, you basically have control of the people and they go from being citizens to being subjects. Socialism can exist in a capitalist society when citizens allow their government to reach too far, as is the case in the USA with certain industries. In this case it's called cronyism - where a wealthy person or company pays politicians for "favorable regulation" that enhances their business at the expense of taxpayers and/or competing business. Cronyism is not "crony capitalism"; cronyism is its own thing just like fraud and theft are their own things.
By contrast to a socialist/communist regime, capitalism is not a form of government, it's an economic premise that allows for private ownership of resources, capital, means of production and such.
But you're placing far too much faith in an "open economy". It won't change this simple facts:
Money is created
Money is distributed by the banks ONLY
Banks earn interest on the money distributed
More money needs to be created to pay for the interests the world owe the banks.
You can buy bonds, which would essentially make you the bank. As a bond buyer, you would be making a loan to whoever is selling the bond according to the terms of the contract. It's the same as you buying a promissory note.
What banks can do today is not the same as it has always been. After the great depression, a law was passed that prevented bank from making risky investments, i.e. derivatives. This law was repealed by Bill Clinton in the 90s under the guise of making it easier for poor people to get mortgages to buy homes. In reality, all it did was unleash a torrent of financial irresponsibility and fraud by bankers.
Point there is that laws limit what banks can and cannot do. Should banks be doing anything more than making relatively safe loans? Probably not...but again, banks pay both taxes and interest on the money they lend. When borrowed money is used to pay employees, it is taxed as income. When the employee buys something, they are taxed on the purchase.
This is the base of tha banking system. With or without a government or regulation. Imagine we get rid of every single regulation and government, what will it change about the banking system?
We don't need regulations; we just need a relative few common-sense laws, and that's what the USA started with. Regulations are a problem because they bypass our constitutional legislative process entirely; they're almost exclusively used as a vehicle for cronyism.
a) Without a government you would not have the rule of law.
b) Without the rule of law you could not have contracts.
c) Without contracts you could not have a notes.
d) Without a note you would not have currency.
Banks require a legal framework within which to operate.