patstew

It's not really a metric, just an absurd example to illustrate a point. In answer to your example, I would say probably yes, but not exactly the same and it wouldn't be called Amazon. Amazon bought up and merged competitive companies on its way to success. If Amazon didn't exist, it's likely one of those, or another competitor that fell by the wayside would've taken its place. I think it's extremely unlikely that most of the hard work, good decisions, clever innovations etc that led Amazon to win can be attributed to Bezos personally, as most of the spoils have.

Last year Jeff Bezos earned more money than every other Amazon employee put together. Does this distribution of rewards fairly reflect the contribution of each person to Amazon's success? If either Bezos or every other employee died in an accident, which would cause more damage to Amazon? Even accepting that Bezos deserves a huge pile of money for his achievements, and that the economic system isn't his fault, it would be reasonable to view the status quo as "contrary to justice or a sense of fairness".