Yes, capatalism is based upon WEALTH. However, most Americans once thought that wealth was akin to happiness because, in previous centuries it was. The rich could afford to escape the unhappiness and drudgery of day-to-day life and live as they chose to, not as another chooses them to.

Now, in the modern western world where choice is almost a free commodity, that's no longer the case and you'll notice that slowly, we're coming around to the thinking of the 'older' nations. You think it's bad now, wait until those nations who are fifty years behind the U.S. get to where we are now. Without innovation we are doomed to live in a world demolished by capatilism but, without capatilism, innovation will not occur. An ugly cycle, but the only way to break it is to ride it to its conclusion.