Capitalism prepares the ground for socialism.
No it doesn't. It prepares the ground for nuclear annihilation. I was not intending to imply that this is not a deeply contradictory process. I was referring to the Marxian argument that capitalism prepares for socialism not only by preparing its grave diggers, and not only according to a dialectical progression, but also by preparing social forms, which then have to go through a qualitative transformation through struggle into socialism. We need to hold on to this thread in marxism as a legitimate way of keeping some revolutionary optimism about the possibilities open to us.