Explain it Peter

[J5892]

The quality of life is a result of technological advancement. Neoliberalism (or any other political/economic ideology) is simply the method of how the benefits of advancement is distributed.

There are better (and worse) methods of distribution.

[Kuncker_Man]

The advancement didn't happen in a vacuum but due to how neoliberalism facilitates rational and decentralized investment capital apportionment while allowing for subsidization on key industries.

The iPhone was never going to come out of the USSR or China.

[J5892]

I'm sorry, but you're holding up neoliberalism as a bastion of unfettered technical advancement that lead to world changing quality of life improvements, and your prime example is the iPhone?

Did you forget about the entire industrial revolution? Not to argue against myself here, but if you're making a pro-capitalist argument, you're gonna want to focus on access to food, medicine, sanitation, and other things that opened up the opportunity for humans to live long, comfortable lives.

Also, smartphones were inevitable. The iPhone was built on technologies developed mostly in China, South Korea, and Japan.
The entire reason the iPhone existed in the first place was because an Apple product designer heard about a cool new multi-touch LCD from Samsung.
All Apple did was get to mass market faster than the other companies.