[Zageron]

An important thing not to miss is that most billionaires are not philanthropists. Elon is an outlier, and progress would be uniquely stymied without him. But, if all of the billionaires in the world had been equalizing their wealth out in various poverty reduction strategies, healthcare improvements, and raising the lowest bar of quality of life, then we would have been far better off far earlier than anything Elon can possibly do today.

The assumption is that technological advancement goes more slowly when there isn't any capitalistic incentive. This is mostly true, but it would still happen. And given the hundreds of additional years we would have had in equality and educational opportunity, I think we would be in a similar if not better place now.

Educated and smart people like spending time inventing things for free if they don't need to struggle to survive.