I can understand the feeling. In certain cases--like compensation--the economy trends towards inefficiency due to an imbalance of power between capital and labo

I can understand the feeling. In certain cases--like compensation--the economy trends towards inefficiency due to an imbalance of power between capital and labor. However overall, the economy is a mechanism for rewarding risk, not hours spent in front of a keyboard. "Hard work" in general is a meaningless concept. What drives humanity forward is risk taking. The system is designed to encourage holders of capital to risk losing it for the potential reward of even greater wealth. Without incentives for owners of capital to take risk, our society and technology doesn't progress.