Apparently "rent-seeking" is an actual term — had to look it up. But the point stands.
I saved this because I kept turning the second-to-last paragraph over in my head. "Go create value for others and don't worry about the returns. If you create more value than you consume, you are welcome in any well-functioning community." Is it really that simple? I want to believe it is. But something in me doubts it.
If you adopt a "value creation" framework to define someone's moral worth, do you accidentally end up becoming a sociopath in the process? After all, a sociopath can be very successful at creating value for others — as long as it aligns with their own interests. And how do you tell whether their interests are actually aligned with anyone else's? That's a hard question to answer.
What if I don't want to produce something "valuable" for the current market? What if my output creates value in something not necessarily "valuable" within the prevailing economic framework?
I don't know. Sometimes I catch myself wondering if we're confusing "how to survive under a system that, despite being notoriously flawed, is the system we have and have grown used to" with "how to live a good life." Are people only "someone" if they "produce value"?