> Equally necessary doesn’t mean equally valuable. So there is that.
But there's no objective way to measure valuable other than what the output is and what happens if the resource is removed. That's circular reasoning. You want to believe that doing something easy can't possibly be as valuable, but, it sure can, it's all a matter of supply and demand. We've all seen boomtown situations, especially if we read history or follow current events, where suddenly an undersupply of warm bodies relative to the opportunities makes for high wages relatively speaking for anyone just willing to move to the boomtown area.
There would be an objective way but it wouldn't be politically accepted. Because then there wouldn't be so much difference in compensation for work and it doesn't do rich people or politicians any good.
After all, if everyone is closer in net worth, many of the problems politicians are supposed to solve just go away.
In any case, objectively the ones who get a shit ton of money just for owning a stock or just leading (making choices, good or bad) are overcompensated compared to the rest.
Supply and demand don't work for this type of stuff because demand (for better paid jobs/position) is basically infinite while supply is artificially constrained: we are making sure that only one in a hundred or one in a thousand can get the position, regardless of actual worker competence. One might be perfectly good enough for the job but if all the positions are taken, he will have to settle for a lower position.
The fact is that the difference between lower levels of pay and higher ones is way too large and this inequality has increased 10-50-fold in the last 50 years. Clearly the system is broken.
But there's no objective way to measure valuable other than what the output is and what happens if the resource is removed. That's circular reasoning. You want to believe that doing something easy can't possibly be as valuable, but, it sure can, it's all a matter of supply and demand. We've all seen boomtown situations, especially if we read history or follow current events, where suddenly an undersupply of warm bodies relative to the opportunities makes for high wages relatively speaking for anyone just willing to move to the boomtown area.