I lived in a world without billionaires - Eastern Europe pre-1990.
It wasn't a world without powerful people though: party nomenklatura and their friends ruled us with an iron fist. Not billionaires in numbers but in lifestyle, power and ruthlessness.
Together with actual billionaires, we also lost all the products and services their work created in process of making them billionaires, so we were all cold and hungry.
I learned then to cherish societies where one could become billionaires: it meant there was enough economic freedom so that the tiny insignificant me could carve a honest, dignified living for me and my own without begging politician mercy for handouts.
Great response!
Its very trendy to say things like "capitalism is gross" or "billionaires shouldn't exist" but the truth is, capitalism has brought more people out of poverty than anything else in the history of the world.
Moreover, billionaires (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc) didn't "steal" anything from you to get there. No one forced you to buy an iPhone.
