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Capitalism was the first economic system ever devised, outside of trading without currency. We know that ancient rome was economically fundamentally capitalist, so that's a few thousand years at least. And inventing is one thing, but inventions need to be turned into products, which then need to be manufactured and distributed and all of that. And don't forget about the materials needed for that, which need to be mined and processed. And I can speak from my own experience when I say that if being better at work wouldn't lead to me making more money, then I'd be slacking off as much as possible instead of being invested in getting things done.
Better work leads to better reward in capitalism, which is by far the most effective method of incetivising people to actually do any work at all. But we sure can agree that the system has been perverted out of proportion and that change needs to happen, I have no illusions about that. We just need to go back to functioning capitalism.
False. Capitalism itself grew out of mercantilism. Which itself rose out of feudalism. Markets and currency predate capitalism. 18th century philosopher Adam Smith is basically seen as the father of capitalism. And no, Rome was never capitalist. Please do some basic reading.
No, better work leads to nothing specific in capitalism. It sometimes "can". But the fact that nearly everyone knows someone who's failed upwards. Well everyone knows one. Donald Trump alone disproves your claim.
I'm reasonably certain you're mixing up capitalism with a free market. Free markets are a feature of capitalism but it's not the only system that has free markets. Socialism also has free markets.