I think we are on the same page about work and jobs. One analogy I used in another story: polishing a rich mans shoes is a job, but feeding and taking care of a poor person is charitable (volunteer without pay). There is something wrong with society when the shine on one man’s shoes has value but easing the suffering of another man does not. Sure the volunteer might get some feeling of fulfillment but that does not speak to the malfunctioning economy.

Here’s another analogy of our broken economy: God (your choice of which one) arrives and grants us a decade of health and life without death. Before God could grant the blessing a few doctors said hold it, hold it that may seem like a good idea but we would lose our jobs. In fact, the economy would shrink by more than 20% creating more suffering then you are stopping. God scratched his head, you mean to tell me that people like you would lose your jobs and starve. Well yes, said the doctors we make money by healing the sick. God said, ‘You have a noble cause, then I will make people sicker instead.’ ‘No, No said the doctors help us make better medicine.’ Fine said god, here’s a vaccine for cancer, just inject this holy water into everyone and they will never get cancer. Hold on Hold on said the cancer doctor….

I wrote a book about how to engineer the economy you can download a free copy here: Hacking the American Economy

Also check out my book Optimizing America on Amazon.