Further discussion with the "late stage capitalism" advocate has clarified something in my mind. These folks look only at the perceived problems in American life, assuming they all stem from capitalism.
Other potential causes are excluded, or seen to be still rooted in capitalism (those damn neo-liberal politicians!).
But they refuse to look at good things, particularly the gains in standard of living because they lack historical perspective.
They refuse to see how capital investment in R&D has improved health care far beyond anything preceding generations had available.
They refuse to see that we work fewer hours while being able to afford more than previous generations.
They take for granted advances in telecommunications, or the average person's ability to travel cross country in a few hours, or the ubiquity of air conditioning, or advanced safety features in cars.
J.D. Rockefeller had none of that. Would you trade places with him just to be richer on paper, but without any of those contemporary benefits?
It's ultimately a non-intellectual stance, an adolescent sneering at an imperfect society, and an anger that capitalism - for all that it's done for us - hasn't created a perfect paradise (as if any set of human institutions could). These are people who read Catcher In the Rye as teenagers and never grew out of it.