actual benefits of capitalism

so capitalism has an inherent flaw, in that those who are good at making a profit continue to do so, accumulating profit and power in the process.  having attained their lofty position, it would be natural to protect those privileges, both for yourself and for your descendants.  culminating in our current economic situation, whereby an exclusive few control the vast majority of economic power, and economic power controls everything else as the capitalist paradigm reigns supreme....

why is capitalism so revered?  what does it provide that is so essential to our modern civilisation and society?  again, not claiming to have any exclusive knowledge, and precious little research, however my opinion is that the true value of the market is the information it communicates - that being where scarce resources should be allocated to obtain maximum benefit.  adam smith's invisible hand, pointing out to market participants where they can maximise their profit, and as a side-effect, where best to allocate those resources for the aggregate benefit of society.

however the invisible hand, while still ably fulfilling the task of maximising profits for the individual, is no longer providing as much benefit to society.  i speculate that this reduced societal benefit is due to the transition from an environment of scarce resources (ie the vast majority of human history), to an environment that would be ample and abundant for all our needs, but for all the games we humans play which result in so much wastage and over-consumption.  but again, easy to have an unsupported opinion, no real intention of backing it with research or evidence.

so any alternate economic system would need to provide this allocation signal, but in a way that doesn't result in profitable individuals hoarding the abundant fruit of their profitable endeavours.  communication of information, seeing as we are currently in the 'information age', surely this is problem for which we can find a solution.  the difficulty as i see it is - consistent with my concerns with communism - trusting any individual with the power to allocate resources.  so clearly it cannot be a government babu, it either needs to be divorced from human manipulation, or democratised so that no individual can benefit.

however, this thought bubble will have to be revisited.