These terms have so much baggage associated with them, and so many different perspectives to them, that I believe they have become nearly meaningless -- even as most people believe they understand them and that they have meaning. What does capitalism even mean? It means different things to different people. You can give a definition of it, but countless others will disagree with you, just as countless others will disagree with them. We really need a new nomenclature for matters of politics and economics, and one that is with as neutral of language as possible that is as unconnected to the previous language as possible in order to avoid tainting it with preconceived notions.
Most people believing they live in capitalist societies arguably don't. What makes the USA capitalist as opposed to some other nation? Virtually every nation in the world today is economically socialist I would argue. In a purely capitalist society there is no taxation whatsoever. The only truly capitalist ideology is anarcho-capitalism. Even USA libertarians are not in support of true capitalism, as they desire for tax funding of the military, courts, and police. This is a form of socialism, in that it is socialized military, courts, and police. There is no reason to imagine that tax funded healthcare is socialism, but not tax funded defense. So, even as USA libertarians are very skewed toward capitalism in their ideology, they are deviated away from it as compared to anarcho-capitalists.
I believe that capitalism is only in the form of anarcho-capitalism, and that communism is only in the form of complete taxation in the form of complete centralization of the means of production and a lack of even the concept of money but rather the distribution of goods in a fully equal manner throughout society. Anything between these two extremes is a socialism to one extent or another. If there is no taxation whatsoever, then there is capitalism, which is characterized by massive decentralization that cuts through all classes of organization, including the courts, police, and military. If there is no private wealth whatsoever, then there is communism, which is characterized by massive centralization that cuts through all classes of organization, including shoe manufacturing and the like. Anything else is socialism, which is the entirety of the range from these two extreme points. USA libertarianism is characterized by a desire for socialized military, courts, and law enforcement, with nothing else being socialized, and so they are very near to capitalist, but they are not truly capitalists even and rather are slight socialists.
Of course though, the United States is not even nearly in the image of libertarian thought. So, libertarian thought, which is already not capitalistic, is far more so capitalistic than what the USA has, with its numerous forms of taxpayer funded program -- from the maintenance of the roads, to parts of the healthcare system, and so on.
