Black-and-white cultural ideas like "socialism vs. capitalism" may be curious relics in a few centuries — think about the fact that even paper currency is a pretty new thing (740 B.C. China) and you get a taste for how things can change (or look at the rise of credit cards over the last 50 years).
Nicely said. My favourite insights into this system were in deep space nine, where many people did work for a living, and earned latinum.
I for one, am very much for sharing/pooling of necessary resources, but even in Star Trek, they didn't really explain the hows.