Free markets help the poor more

People joke about how our system is mixed: the benefits of Socialism for the rich, and the rigors of Capitalism for the poor. Walter Williams asks:

If one is poor or of modest means, where does he fare better: in the freer and more open sector of our economy or in the controlled and highly regulated sector? Let's look at it.

Did Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller and Guggenheim start out rich? Andrew Carnegie worked as a bobbin boy, changing spools of thread in a cotton mill 12 hours a day, six days a week, earning $1.20 a week. A young John D. Rockefeller worked as a clerk. Meyer Guggenheim started out as a peddler. Andrew Mellon did have a leg up; his father was a lawyer and banker [but was born poor and immigrated.]

So I get the feeling that our system is mixed: the opportunities of Capitalism for the rich, and the impedances of Socialism for the poor. Here's an example of such an impedance:

Buried deep inside the gargantuan financial reform legislation now before Congress are some little-noticed provisions that are going to make it impossible for that doctor to invest, make it harder and more expensive for that inventor to start a company, and much, much harder for people like you and me to start a business.