Regarding capitalism, I would say that it is a more forward looking philosophy.
Everyone wants equality. But until you ask what kind of equality, you aren't really learning anything.
- Socialism seeks equality of status to benefit everyone now...present focused.
- Capitalism seeks equality of opportunity to benefit everyone in the future...future focused.
Think of the boats on the water analogy, where each boat is an earning entity (a person, a family, a company), and water is wealth.
Socialism/Liberalism takes a snapshot, and sees that some boats are high on a wave, and some are in a trough. Socialism/ Liberalism says, "That's not fair." And, it works to lessen the waves, so that no boat is much higher than the others. It seeks equality of status...equality of the here and now.
Capitalism, on the other hand, seeks equality of opportunitiy which is forward looking. It seeks to increase the overall sea level...every boat rises (which means that everyone has more money, top to bottom), so everyone improves their lot in life. Sure, some are much better off than others, but soon, everyone will be out of poverty except perhaps for those who don't take advantage of their opportunities.
In the short run, socialism works great, because redistributing wealth is easy to implement, and the poor get a quick influx of wealth. This is the focus on the present. Then, to keep things running, they have to borrow from future generations by driving the nation into massive debt. This is unsustainable in the long run unless the economy is rocking, but the deeper into socialism you go, the worse the economy does, which magnifies the debt problem, and shows why socialism is inevitably doomed to fail.
In the long run (decades, centuries), capitalism is always better for everyone, rich or poor. Will there be inequality of status? Yes. But if equality of opportunity is guaranteed, then the overall wealth of society will increase. But, in the long run, socialism is bad for everyone, because once people realize that their wealth will be taken from them and given to people who don't work, then all will slow their work, and the sea level will stagnate or decrease, and pretty soon everyone except for the politically powerful will be in overall poverty, waiting in lines for goods at empty stores.
And, I don't think these principles only apply in extreme examples of socialism and capitalism. You can look at the range of values in between, and each society can slide back and forth...the more a society slides toward socialism (like we are), the worse it will do eventually even if it has short term benefits.