I'm surprised that half of people would believe businesses are making a positive impact on the world.
The cheap things from china, all your amazon crap, your iPhones and all the rest of the so called "nice things" of today's society are only gained through (near) slavery conditions elsewhere.
This delayed effect on how bad things are that is now reaching rich countries like the US, but it has been around on every other "developing" nation in the world for a long time.
I don't think we're talking about the local grocer. We're talking about multi-billion corps that can do anything. Banks that are literally "too big to fail". Industries that control entire sections of governments.
This is the endgame of capitalism and nobody ever wants to face. It's an unsustainable system that will likely end in a dystopian-like world with mega corporations controlling everything and everyone (even your salary through UBI). The theory that corporations get too big then break down resetting the cycle no longer applies because the technology evolved.
I mean, the sole purpose of a business is to generate profit.
It's not to improve human kind, to cure diseases, end the world hunger or make everyone's lives better. It was always, and always will be, in the name of profit. When we realize that profit is literally ripping people off from their work, maybe some might change their views.
No, this is not Marxism. I can't even claim to have ever read his books. It's the reality of what I see today. Note that I'm not saying in any way how we should solve these things. I'm neither smart enough to think of those solutions or naive to think they'll ever come to life. But it's undeniable that we live in a dire world and capitalism is one of the biggest forces behind it all.
Peace? Seriously? Of all the things you could cite from capitalism, you mention the one thing that never stopped happening. Perhaps war stopped nearby your home, but capitalism never brought peace to the world. On the contrary, it created many, many wars. As it's often said: war is profitable.
Innovation is a tricky one. I agree a lot has been brought because of the pursuit for profit, but I believe they are happy coincidences. Many of the worlds greatest brains are today trying to find out how to exploit people through ads.
Perhaps your personal experience makes capitalism the lesser evil compared to the soviet USSR, but I'd urge you to not fall into this false dicothomy. It's not a binary choice.
I am not sure this assertion holds up under historical inquiry but that's my opinion.
Is it perfect? Hell no. Is it good for everyone? Unfortunately not.
But pretty much everything you depend on comes from a business of some type or another.