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Not only is it a myth but also incredibly arrogant, as if the ten thousand years of advancements and innovation by humanity since the dawn of civilisation prior to the development of capitalism in Italian city states never happened.

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The hockey stick innovation curve started at the time of the industrial revolution, thanks to free markets.

Or it could have also been due to the whole having access to orders of magnitude more mechanical power on tap, assembly line production allowing for rapid prototyping, and industrialisation of agriculture leading to a population boom.

Which happened in free market countries, not unfree ones.

P.S. the assembly line (invented in a free market country) is not about rapid prototyping. Prototypes are not built on an assembly line.

Russia and China or do those not count?

Russia and China did not industrialize until well over a century later. Or are you saying Russia and China build prototypes on an assembly line? I'll need a reference for that!

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