If we look at history and evaluate the real-world outcomes that these two economic systems have produced, capitalism is the clear winner. If you take the modern United States as the example of capitalism gone wrong, you see inequality and a poorly functioning political system, but on the whole, the country is still a very nice place to live, one of the best in the world in fact. Our poor are far better off than most of the developing world, and our economy has produced an almost endless list of success stories.

Compare that to Soviet Russia or China under Mao. These were decidedly NOT nice places to live. The governments were violent and autocratic, and economic production fell so much that it led to famines. These countries still haven't fully recovered from the economic consequences of their socialist regimes, and it was only by adopting more capitalist policies that they have begun to pull themselves out of poverty. Even after the introduction of Special Economic Zones in China, the average Chinese citizen would be one of the poorest Americans, and it would take a near doubling of their income just to reach our poverty line. I seriously doubt that many of these young voters would be as enthusiastic about socialism if they had seen the absolute devastation it wrought upon huge portions of humanity in the 20th century.

Capitalism has many skeletons in its closet, but it has also produced more widespread prosperity than any other economic system in human history. I believe the best approach is to try to mitigate the worst case outcomes of capitalism through a strong social safety net while preserving the incentives to work hard that have made capitalism so successful throughout history.