> [A] lot of the technology used in communist countries was copied from capitalist ones. Communist countries would have been even poorer without capitalist one

> [A] lot of the technology used in communist countries was copied from capitalist ones. Communist countries would have been even poorer without capitalist ones doing R&D for them. But the "communist countries" you are talking about were largely economic backwaters to begin with. That's the same as saying "2nd/3rd world countries would have been even poorer without 1st ones doing R&D for them. Look to some of the "social democracies" for counterexamples to "communist == poor" and "communist == not innovative".