I'm always wary about making that point though, because it makes it seem like we want an economy that just operates on passion projects alone, which is obviously not going to be functional. I usually just point out all the nameless researchers and scientists who do most of the innovating but never become billionaires as evidence that no, one person does not need to have wealth equal to the GDP of a country for people to have cool toys
Modding is indeed a great example of why "people won't do work without monetary incentive" is extremely wrong.
I'm always wary about making that point though, because it makes it seem like we want an economy that just operates on passion projects alone, which is obviously not going to be functional. I usually just point out all the nameless researchers and scientists who do most of the innovating but never become billionaires as evidence that no, one person does not need to have wealth equal to the GDP of a country for people to have cool toys