Without people striving to make a fortune lots of others would be without a job/product
Are you sure ? If the top house builders in the country weren't paying themselves nice big fat salaries, no one would be building houses ? 😕
"Imagine if no one wanted to make big profits from manufacturing mountain bikes. "
I think you might be confusing making a profit with making a fortune. As I understood it, the OP was talking about making a fortune.
"Greed is what kept the human race alive when things got tough."
Do you mean like when things got really tough during World War 2 ?