[wwright]

I can’t deny that, but I can certainly point out that billionaires coinciding with the rise in quality does not mean that they were even produced by the same system, or that the presence of the billionaires was in any way necessary.

To reframe your point: maybe we should be careful to identify where the baby is and spend a little less attention on what billionaires want.

[tux1968]

It seems pretty clear that capitalism tends to produce concentrations of wealth. Billionaires are created by capitalism because of this tendency. The question is if you can stop the tendency of capitalism without killing the system altogether. We just have to keep in mind, for all its faults, it has a track record of provably doing more for the well-being and prosperity of masses of average people more than any other system.