Capitalism is the driver of technological innovation in all kinds of areas. If we didn't get to keep some of the fruit of our labour, thanks to the laws that protect private property, we'd have to be saints to be inspired to help produce anything. The alternative of communism was tried and it failed.

That's not to defend America's style of capitalism as it currently exists, an economy that's likely unsustainable since it leads to plutocracy. But the basics of capitalism have the obvious upside that that kind of economy powered much of the modern progress we take for granted, including, for instance, innovations in medical technology.