I think one depressing example is innovation in weapons and other dangerous fields. "If we don't build it, someone else will first" is unfortunately historically been shown to be true, has it not?
Today's unsavory borderline reactionary doomposting brought to you by: my crippling fear that I'm isolating myself in a political echo-chamber (so naturally I gotta hop online and exclusively ask my fellow leftists)
capitalism isn't right about anything, just like an abuser isn't right to engage in abusive behavior. similar to abuse, capitalism is effective at achieving its goals of putting others down to lift itself up. breaking these cycles is difficult, but that difficulty does not justify their existence.