> Elon Musk is the last big industrialist alive, after Jobs passing. If his endeavors succeed he'll be remembered alongside Edison, Franklin, Ford, Jobs etc. It's admirable.
I think you don't know enough about the world's industrialists. (And neither do I.) Most of them are less well known than Elon Musk. So just because you don't know them doesn't mean they don't exist. My guess is that China has quite a few people with grand ideas and capabilities.
Industrialists in the developing world are disproportionately not those with grand ideas, but political connections and ties to resource extraction industries.
That's an unfair generalization. There are many industrialists in the developing world who started from scratch [1] and without connections, but managed to build something amazing.
Sure, it's a generalization. There are a lot of self-made entrepreneurs in the developing world. There are also a lot of tycoons getting rich in the oil and gas industries because of cozy relationships with corrupt governments.
The U.S. really was never as bad as many developing countries are today. In the age of the robber barons, the U.S. government didn't do anything to stop them, but wasn't in bed with them the same way as in China or Russia. Remember, a huge portion of China's businesses are still state-owned, and many of the rest have very incestuous ties with the government. Think of the defense sector in the U.S., except far less transparent, far more corrupt, and far more extensive.
I think you don't know enough about the world's industrialists. (And neither do I.) Most of them are less well known than Elon Musk. So just because you don't know them doesn't mean they don't exist. My guess is that China has quite a few people with grand ideas and capabilities.