Indeed. I suppose he doesn't believe in evolution either, not because he's conservative, but because evolution inherently follows the path that produces the most prosperity in a competitive medium, and it has come up with a balance of socializing infrastructure and risk with a layer of free market competition on top of that.
In unregulated, purely free markets, it isn't prosperity that is rewarded, it is winning. Lying, cheating, stealing, sabotaging the competition, monopolistic behaviour, and so forth are all much lower risk that innovation. In order for risks to be worth the benefits, the penalties must be minimized. If companies had to pay for all of their own R&D, nobody could risk failure or would go under. Spreading the cost means they can afford the risk and failure will just sting a little instead of putting them under.
These are basic economic concepts and well understood in competition mathematics like game theory. All modern first world countries have a mix of socialism and free-market capitalism. It's the ratio and details of what is socialized that vary. Ideologies are the axes into the socioeconomic space, they aren't the optimal point.
This needs to be taught in high school. This push towards "us versus them" ideological mentality is embarrassing in a modern society. It's treating politics like competing sports teams.
Sometimes it's worth it to read comments on Reddit