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Honest socialists should advocate capitalism, at least when it comes to the ownership of the means of production and the freedom of the markets. To understand why, we first have to make some assumptions about what the goal is. Specifically, we have to assume that socialists propose their collectivist political systems because they think they will be good for people.
Of course, this may be difficult to believe. After all, those most stridently advocating socialism call for equality, but almost always envision themselves in positions of power in the new order, where they are "more equal" than the others, in the words of George Orwell. Also, the history of socialism in practice is clearly a dismal one, with suffering, injustice and poverty the norms, leading one to doubt the honesty of those who still claim it as "good" for the people.
But let's give the benefit of the doubt to socialists, and assume that they really do care. The fact that they don't believe in the freedom of individuals (at least not in the economic sphere - which makes up the largest part of one's life), may offend us, but we'll assume that they truly believe that less freedom is better for people. They also believe people should be equal, not just in rights, but in economic matters, thus we have the socialist ideas of government ownership of the means of production and the distribution of goods. Again, lets assume they really believe such "enforced" equality is truly good for humans.
(I happen to believe in a more capitalist society, in case you couldn't tell. But I think the moral arguments for capitalism are far more important than the economic ones.)
Okay, so the honest socialist's goal is to have a more equal society. Presumably this means that the poor are helped to be less poor, and all have access to education, and other worthy goals such as these. These are all goals that require money, of course, or the redistribution of goods. This is why they should favor capitalism.
This is a simple argument. Socialist systems can't (and never have) create as much wealth as capitalists ones, and for very good reasons that any decent economist can explain. Therefore, if the "good" of the people is the aim, and all of the programs that help the people and make them more equal are the more specific goals, then socialists should favor a system that gives the most economic power to accomplish these goals to the government.
In other words, The system that creates the most wealth is the system from which the most wealth can be extracted for welfare and other socialist plans. That is obviously the capitalist system. In the united states, for example, welfare spending per recipient is certainly greater than any per-person redistribution of goods in Cuba or other socialist countries. Why? Because the money is there!
You can't redistribute what hasn't been created. The little bit of capitalism that the United States has creates so much money, that just the taxes extracted from the citizens are more (per-capita) than the whole economic output of most socialist countries. That means more money for social programs of whatever sort a good socialist might want.
Now, as a side note, it is important to point out that using capitalism for socialist goals only works most efficiently if taxes are kept at reasonable rate. When tax rates get too high, governments take in less total tax revenue. It is like a vampire who wants to get the most from his victim. If he sucks too much out, the victim gets sick and produces less blood, or dies and produces no more. The socialist, like the vampire, has to take just the right amount to get the most in the long run.
Why would they want a system that is demonstrably worse for people? Perhaps resentment against those who prosper? Seeing wealthy people suffer may be more important than bettering the lives of the rest. (Believe me, if the day comes when ALL are rich, many will still resent those who are MORE rich.) Maybe it is just an urge to control. Social engineering is always cloaked in supposed good intentions, even when it is no more than power-seeking for psychological or criminal motivations.
In any case, honest socialists who study economics and history should be for partial-capitalism.