Comment by mmooss

I understand how the marketplace works, but the value - the contribution, the marginal value - to society doesn't match it.

The $1T business owner doesn't provide nearly that much marginal value to society.

The backup (or starting) NBA forward provides zero marginal value - if they didn't do it, someone else would and the outcome for society, entertainment, would be the same. It doesn't matter how well they play basketball; that doesn't make it more entertaining (with a few extraordinary exceptions). People in the US enjoy college sports, where performance is much worse, as much as professional sports. People root for their 'bad' local team as much as a good one: they do prefer winning, but that is a zero sum tradeoff with the other team's fans.

The income for the two examples are the results of economic distortions.

My kids' teachers provide contribute far more than the latter, and far more than they are paid.