Starving people are not a feature of a successful system.
Capitalism does not reward hard work. Smart work, maybe, but not hard work.
Capitalism does not reward hard work. Smart work, maybe, but not hard work.
I'd say a person successful/rewarded in a capitalistic society (defined by accruing more wealth than they started with and not just spending down some large family inheritance they were born into) probably has some combination of: luck, smart (intelligent) decisions, hard word, probably has a good "setup" going into the working world like parents didn't abuse them growing up and at least helped pay for their education, etc. Maybe that last one is just a subset of luck, we certainly do not choose our parents.
Sure, you can be missing one of the above list and do Ok, but probably not two. Statistically a smart, hard working person who had the world's crappiest upbringing probably won't be that successful compared with somebody who had all three going for them. But if you look at 20 "success stories" it is extremely rare the person didn't work hard. I think it's an important component of being rewarded in capitalism. It does a disservice to people to say "slacking off or working hard results in identical outcomes".
To support at least half of your point, you cannot be stupid and work hard and be successful. But a smart person who works hard will most likely do better than a smart person who doesn't work hard.
Unless you are born into wealth, of course. One of your three/four criteria. Lots of examples of people grifting and grinding to fail upwards who have no special talent or intelligence of their own. Some are very powerful, even.
And capitalism often does reward hard work. Most of the really successful people I know are just somewhat smart but work crazy hard.
It's Democracy that supposed to prevent starving people. (And crime, and that people are educated, and healthy)
Specifically, if there is a human that cannot participate in capitalism (strong enough, focused enough, educated enough, lucky enough, conforming enough), then capitalism pushes those people to the floor of the human existence.
I guess I can imagine what life would be like for myself if I didn't have to work, or if there was not a direct correlation between the work I did and the things I can have. I wouldn't work if I didn't have to.
Do I think we could be more generous in caring for those less fortunate than ourselves. Yes, because common sense suggests I too might be down on my luck one day.
Do I think we should should outlaw rent seeking in our society? Yes. Fuck Landlords. The earth belongs to everybody. Nobody should own land.
But don't get angry at Capitalism, get angry that our Democracies are not set up to give each voice equal power. Get angry that rich people can buy votes. Get angry that rich people can use their money to manipulate the media influence people.
Our democracies are too big and too removed from our day to day lives.