The Techster finally understands what being a liberal really is all about. Now if you reallly want to see what it's going to take to implement MEC, check MA's post below.

The question is, has there EVER been a period of "perfect" capitalism, an Adam Smith analogue to Marx's equally elusive "socialist paradise"?

I think the closest we got to it is the last half of the twentieth century, in the United States and in a few other countries: The dynamism and self-regulating efficiency of the free market, moderated and tamed to truly serve the community by democratically derived and limited regulation and law and by workers organizing to preserve their interests.