"We will need to agree to disagree on some things."

I think you are right about agreeing to disagree. Also, I can see the perspective you are coming from, and I do agree that living in a state of financial struggle is a hardship which isn't at all optimal. However, one major problem with imposing socialism is that it tends to destroy countries very quickly.

So, although it would be nice in theory to create a system where no one is poor and everyone owns a house and has free health insurance, free school, and a free universal basic income, these things are mythical like money trees and unicorns. I'm not saying that capitalism is perfect, but it's far less broken than socialism. Many of capitalism's benefits are things we are all too ready to overlook. A job, in general, is a benefit of capitalism.

When socialism takes hold of a nation's economy; then productivity stagnates, and jobs tend to dry up and vanish very quickly. And because the government is giving away free stuff when it is too broke to be doing anything of the sort people start to gain a sense of entitlement to not only the looted things that government gives them but also the wealth and property of others.

In short, they start to steal from one another; and this causes violence and crime to skyrocket. One need only look as far as Venezuela to see how it's working out for them. In this PragerU video, Felipe Moura from Brazil explains clearly and concisely how socialism ruined his country.

Here is a short clip where famed economist and nobel laureate Milton Friedman explains some of the virtues of capitalism to Phil Donahue. If his ideas peak your interest, the extended version of the interview is here.

If socialism worked I think many taxpayers would much rather pay for it than they would the infernal war machine that is the military industrial complex. However, in reality, neither work out in the long term to benefit the American people. In fact, the amount of military spending is a form of socialism in and of itself. At this point, I don't know if anything will be able to save our country from the amount of debt that the US government has racked up over the years.

In the end, the final result might be bleak regardless, but if we are to have a fighting chance of turning it around, we have to either break free of the central banking system or jump-start the economy with the type of capitalism that we haven't seen the likes of since the industrial revolution. Even that may only be kicking the can down the road, but it's a longer road than socialism has to offer.