I think most of the big players today would have started out just the same. People like Jobs & Woz, Page & Brin, Bezos, and Musk didn't get in the game to make billions, at least at first. They wanted to change the world, or maybe pursue an interesting opening, or perhaps chase after a fascinating new technology. In a more equal society, these instincts would hardly be curtailed.

And even if you're right, maybe a world without mega-companies wouldn't be such a bad place after all?

Musk is a nice example. He probably would've started the same, but Tesla and SpaceX wouldn't have existed / been the same as today.

Remember that at some point Musk had poured all his wealth into those companies and they were one failure away from bankruptcy. If Musk had any less money after PayPal, he couldn't have done what he did.

In this alternate universe, PayPal could have morphed into PayPalphabet and spawned other companies corresponding to Musk's interests. I think that would still work fine as long as the money stayed within the company and out of executives' hands.

nope, it wouldn't ever happen. without capitalism -- or greed, incentive, however you want to put it -- none of those companies would exist.

Yes, I think it absolutely would happen. Incentive would still be there. People won't sit around idle just because they can't make a million times more money than their peers.

The fundamental issue here is human behavior. Whatever system you come up with, people will come up with ways to turn it to their advantage.

there is a meaningful compromise position here somewhere. being able to accumulate $1 billion of personal wealth is still a mighty incentive even if we tax wealth enough so that accumulating $90 billion is almost impossible.