For the majority of human history, there were no discernible improvements in the living standards for the average person. Brief episodes of progress were usually followed by setbacks: famines, wars, and outbreaks of diseases. The past two centuries, however, gave rise to extraordinary economic and technological advances. Poverty rates declined, literacy improved, and life expectancy rose. What drove those profound changes after millennia of stagnation? While not every advance in human welfare can be attributed to market forces, this chapter contends that capitalism nevertheless played an important role. By improving the allocation of scarce resources, incentivising hard work and risk-taking, and enabling economies of scale through mass manufacturing, capitalism has transformed yesterday’s luxuries into affordable commodities, unlocking material abundance that underpins improvements in living standards. Yet material abundance alone cannot guarantee human flourishing. Rising inequality and environmental degradation reveal capitalism's inherent limitations: markets excel at efficiency and innovation but cannot distinguish right from wrong. Even Milton Friedman acknowledged that profit-seeking must operate within ethical bounds. The chapter concludes that capitalism is necessary but insufficient for progress—translating abundance into broad-based prosperity requires conscious choices about which innovations to pursue and how gains should be shared.