Society has undergone the same shift which it witnessed in miniature in the above story. Material values are placed above all else. Yet we operate as members of a larger structure which has profit as its motto. The individual is indoctrinated into the work ethic through the cumulative effect of reward and punishment doled out by the system. It becomes increasingly likely that money will be the top priority, for it gets economically and spiritually harder to promote other values in a competitive environment.
Modern capitalism is locked into a cycle of greed.
The side that says capitalism can be altered without revolution includes the self-reliance movement and the corporate accountability movement. That is not to say that individuals within those groups aren t opposed to capitalism, simply that those movements do not specifically call for the end of capitalism. They promote efforts such as local currencies, community land trusts, and general action against mega-corporations. Of course it is a matter of people. But people can be themselves only in small comprehensible groups.