Really? I would say that a large portion of people who live in a society extract more value from it than they put in. If you are just merely doing your job you are not making any extra value. I could work hard as a hunter-gatherer, or work hard programming, but either way I'm just doing my job. In the second case I'm just using the infrastructure that other people have set up to be able to live a much happier life by working just as hard (or even less hard).
> If you are just merely doing your job you are not making any extra value.
That's got to be the most ignorant comment on HN in a very long time. Really? Think for just two seconds: Do you think a person would be employed at all if they did not make more value than they took home (including taxes and all that)?
The whole reason our economy works at all is BECAUSE people make more value than they take home. If not for that there would be zero employment.
How about you think, for maybe 10 seconds or more? Even the most well designed machine needs cogs. Most people are just a cog in the machine. The cog doesn't add value, it just makes the machine work. But of course those cogs are still needed and therefore employed.
Entrepreneurs build the machines. Everyone else is just cogs or highly specialised components.
Try looking outside of your little bubble once in a while. Just for one day pay attention to what the vast majority of working people are actually doing.
