Change technology, change society?

Arthur Dobrin had this to say about Mitt Romney, well, ostensibly about him, but more about creative destruction.  The core of Dobrin's argument seems to me to be not very much about economic models, but about innovation. Selected quotes:

> Innovation is the way of capitalism.

> This is all to the good if the extent of the destruction is the replacement of one product with another (the TV for the radio).

> You cannot support both unleashed capitalism and a stable social order. Along with new products come new ways of doing things; along with new ways of doing things come new ideas.

It sounds as if Dobrin is saying that innovations in products can lead to changes in society, more profound than just exchanging one product for another or one employer for another. I suppose one obvious example is the Pill. Thus promoting innovative businesses is at odds with conserving society, and someone like Romney should not, with a straight face, claim to be a social conservative.

The question of what responsibility falls on an innovator as a result of the social changes his/her products bring about, or on the society that benefits from those products, does seem to me to be important. Gov. Romney is not the one on trial here; the whole idea of unrestrained innovation is being examined.