bstills

"it is not part of the capitalism idea that you must run that way from top to bottom"

Well then it wouldn't be capitalism all the way down? It would only be capitalism on the outside, socialism on the inside.

Capitalism is a system in which individuals are rewarded according to what the market will give them. If you don't do that you simply don't have capitalism.

"Socialists advocate a method of compensation based on individual merit or the amount of labour one contributes to society"

How do you measure merit and the amount of labour one contributes to society? The only fair way I know of is capitalism where people get to vote with their money on whether or not you are providing value or not.

I would posit that merit is the amount of value you give to another. Minus marketing and any government interference, capitalism rewards individuals for the value they contribute to society.

It is also necessary to separate capitalism from corporatism. The latter is what most people are against when they say that capitalism is evil. There is no such thing as a corporation in terms of capitalism.

There is one flaw in capitalism that I am aware of but I still think it is the best system. That flaw is that it tends to reward those with capital. To have capital is to have an advantage over someone of equal ability. Over time power tends to consolidate into a few select organizations / individuals.