And the alternative you guys offer is huge levels of deprivation, underground/gray/black markets, and so on.

Having actually grown up in USSR, I can tell you that the levels of deprivation I've seen living in the west are far greater.

It does. The goods that people tend to need are commodities that are cheap enough that they’re given away.

Except that they're not given away. Poverty and need are rampant under capitalism.

Please find some documentation that supports the extraordinary hypothesis that people are starving on the streets.

Literally linked you a source. Here's what things in US look like https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/31/us/food-insecurity-30-million-census-survey/index.html

This one’s just fiction.

Ironic that you're telling somebody who has actual lived experience under both systems. You're a victim of propaganda, and it's very sad to see how close minded you are.