Interesting info. Personally not a big fan of USSR, but it's an interesting debate around the construction of intercultural relations instead of multiculturalism, but for that we need to remind multicultiralism's close relation with imperialism (the Incas are an interesting example in prehispanic America).

Capitalism works, yes, but based in coercion (violent and non-violent) and structural inequality (because for exploitation to work you need miserable people that will accept working in unfair conditions for food) which is monopoly of material resources needed for life and monopoly of violence. There's no need for a good will or honorability for capitalism to work, since it's not the main objective. Its target is to maximize the profits, so it'll never inherently lead to equality since it's not a requirement.
An Indiviual solution like autarky its a conformist delusion, autonomy is an impossibility considering the distribution of natural resources, almost every resource it's monopolized. And if everyone attemps being self-sufficient, the elites would probably use their coercion to "bring stability" to the system (i.e. USA interventionism, economic blocks, repression). In the worst case scenario, they can't because of monopoly of material resources for life.
Then every possible real solution is political and colective.