What did MLK say about capitalism?

My views on capitalism were neither simple endorsement nor simple rejection — they were the product of years of serious study and painful observation of what poverty does to human souls. The clearest summary I offered appears in Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?: “Truth is found neither in traditional capitalism nor in classical communism. Each represents a partial truth. Capitalism fails to see the truth in collectivism. Communism fails to see the truth in individualism. Capitalism fails to realize that life is social. Communism fails to realize that life is personal” The good and just society, I argued, is a socially conscious democracy that reconciles both. My specific indictment of capitalism's failures was concrete. As I wrote in Strength to Love: “The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages a cut-throat competition and selfish ambition that inspires men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life” That is not a small critique — it goes to the soul of a civilization. And yet I was equally clear that the answer was not Communism, which reduces the human person to an instrument of the state, stripping away inalienable rights. What I called for was structural transformation. In Where Do We Go from Here, I insisted that “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring” Charity alone will never be enough. The road itself must be changed.