>People have this propagandized view that the "free market" (which isn't real) is responsible for innovation.

In the last century and a half, we went from candle light and horse and buggy, to the lowest level of global poverty in the last 5,000 years of recorded human history.

If capitalism wasn't responsible then what was?

China is almost solely responsible for the reduction in global extreme poverty [1].

[1]: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/04/01/l...