Well, I am a bit more cynical than you, I think.

I do what I can do to change the world - I was politically active for 5-6 years of my youth, I give money to charity, I always speak up against injustice when I see it. But I don't think the world really changes if everyone did that.

The reason the world is as it is, is because some people gain from it. People without consciences that do whatever they can to make a profit, and the rest of us help them (indirectly) by for instance buying cheap clothes made by child labour, because there really aren't many alternatives and one customer's boycott doesn't really help.

I think you can say a lot of great things about capitalism but I also think the way it rears cynicism and selfishness in the most successful is scary. Is it a system deliberately set up to make humans profit from their egoism. For most only to the extent where they try to be successful in their job, but for the TRULY cruel of us, this global economic system allows for big money. There's a reason sex trafficking, arms trafficking and drug trafficking are the three most profitable industries in the world.

I don't think the world will change for the better before we replace the current economic system with one that doesn't drain our resources, one that doesn't allow one person alone to be able to own half the world's wealth, one that makes it profitable to share and work together. And for that to happen I think we unfortunately need either 1) climate catastrophe on a global scale, since western politicians and countries don't really seem to care if poor people die from flood in Bangladesh, 2) some sort of global regulation that was possible to uphold or 3) a massive revolt from the poor in the world, the ones who make our clothes and electronics for "slave wages" while living in huts made from cardboard. It helps a bit that those countries are slowly getting wealthier aswell, but the wealth is so unevenly divided, so it doesn't really matter.

I don't see either of those things happening in my lifetime. So I do what I can, personally, but the people who truly rule the world - governments and multi-national companies - are the ones with the ability to truly change it, and they won't unless they fear personal loss or consequences for their actions.