Why is it so hard to imagine something better than Capitalism?

Imagining is easy; doing is hard.

The problem is not capitalism. The capitalist's employees and customers don't want to give anything up either. WE buy things made by assholes, so assholes make things. Blaming them is just scapegoating.

None of the things being said about capitalism today were not true in the Gilded Age. Do we think those monopolists didn't have clout? Eventually, though, we figure out how to make better behavior pay more than the alternative, and we move forward. Will we succeed this time? Beats me. Critters go extinct all the time.

We can't "imagine" a better system than capitalism because capitalism is the most efficient way to allocate resources to the sort of things capitalists do best. We still need socialized infrastructure, regulated banks and utilities, etc., but if we treat capitalism as the default allocator and decide through politics when and how it should be limited, we get the best results. The only thing worse than a capitalist with a profit motive is a politician with a hidden agenda.