Of course it was the free market and capitalism that saved the Chilean miners

According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, “If those miners had been trapped a half-mile down like this 25 years ago anywhere on earth, they would be dead.”

But because of a drill bit made by a firm from Pennsylvania, the high-strength cable system made in Germany, the fiber-optic communications cable that linked the miners to the world above made in Japan, socks made with copper fiber that consumed foot bacteria, and minimized odor and infection made by Cupron Inc. in Richmond, Va etc etc the miners were pulled out of their situation in remarkably good health.

“In an open economy, you will never know what is out there on the leading developmental edge of this or that industry. But the reality behind the miracles is the same: Someone innovates something useful, makes money from it, and re-innovates, or someone else trumps their innovation. Most of the time, no one notices. All it does is create jobs, wealth and well-being. But without this system running in the background, without the year-over-year progress embedded in these capitalist innovations, those trapped miners would be dead.”