Should billionaires exist?

Is it okay if a system produces billionaires, providing there is a way of ensuring that those billionaires cannot corrupt the government and cannot avoid paying tax? And providing their business is doing something positive for society, and that they are treating all their workers well - including paying them at least a living wage?

China is the most unequal country on the planet, but they have lifted nearly a billion people out of poverty, and are doing great things in terms of building infrastructure and job creation; in terms of reforestation, investment in renewable energy, etc. But they are not 'free market' capitalist - they have a huge amount of state ownership and central control. And capital controls. This, and being a one-party state, perhaps makes it easier to ensure that everyone is benefiting from the wealth creation, (even if the workers aren't getting the wealth, that many would argue, they truly deserve).

In general, I just don’t think it’s particularly healthy for anyone to be that rich. This study concluded that wealth beyond a certain amount (around $100k in the US), does not lead to greater happiness, and many other studies have concluded that great wealth actually leads to unhappiness.

And I guess whichever way you look it, it is exploitation of the worker, if that worker isn't getting the wealth that their labour is creating for the business.

Radio show host Emma Barnett says here that those of us on the left who question the existence of billionaires, shouldn't do so, because they pay a lot of tax. But this is an extremely flawed argument. With great wealth, comes great power, including the ability to corrupt the government (and the media) to operate in your interests; the ability to funnel money to offshore tax havens, etc. And if the profits were shared fairly, the workers would be paying the tax, and they would not have such powers to avoid doing so.

Another argument leveled at the left is that condemning billionaires is paramount to condemning aspiration. I imagine that, surely, the existence of billionaires, with their domination of society and the market, results in detrimental effects for those at the bottom who want to start a business? And also, it surely is not healthy for society to encourage and value such immense personal wealth? Given that it leads to unhappiness, and given that we know that 'trickle-down' economics does not work?

So it seems to me that we either need a one-party state, with capital controls, like they have in China, where the super rich are unable to so easily corrupt the government, avoid paying tax, and send their profits oversees, or we need to suitably regulate corporations, so that power and wealth are redistributed fairly and, eventually, billionaires are eradicated!