And I think you clearly have the wrong impression of what capitalism is. The argument you are putting forward is a straw man, irrelavent in the modern world, or of anything that exists today. Its like arguing that we shouldn't have any social programs or public education because, if we do, we'll all become godless communists and the state will expropriate your house, your property, your daughters, etc.
Who the heck argues that government should have absolutely no involvement in society? No one. I don't hear many people arguing that the police should be privately run, that the army should be privately run, that the courts should be privately run, that all roads should be privately run, that all education should be privately run, etc.
To say that the US has "no safety net" is an outright fabrication. Over half the US federal budget goes to social programs. Now, you can argue that there should be more social spending, but to use the US as a representative of "capitalism" because there is "no social net" is not a serious argument that should be dismissed out of hand.
As for using Katrina as another example because there is racism towards the poor blacks, well, perhaps you should have also travelled through south Florida when Andrew ripped through this state, devastating Florida, and leaving thousands of white people without homes. It took years for that part of the state to recover. It was worse than New Orleans. To say that New Orleans is a "failure" of capitalism completely misunderstands what capitalism is, and, again, should be dismissed out of hand. New Orleans is a failure of society, not a socio-economic structure.
Perhaps I should have. But healthcare and a economic safety net for the poor and sick are pretty big things CDNBear and Toro. Many people say that Britain virtually died in a socialist pit...well, you also know we were very much like you, we were probably the biggest capitalists of them all..but you know what?
We realised there HAD to be a balance somewhere and there are certain socialist ideals that fit very nicely into a capitalist country...I just think many countries would do well to incorporate them.