> I think we can have a society that rewards people for productive or otherwise socially valuable contributions while also taking care of the poor and those who

> I think we can have a society that rewards people for productive or otherwise socially valuable contributions while also taking care of the poor and those who can’t work. If people were paid based on performance and we removed the political advantages that certain professional elites have carved out for themselves, we’d be much better off in terms of both inequality and economic growth. What does this actually mean? Sure, a few professions like doctors have managed to protect their high salaries by constraining supply, but programmers are paid very well in the US and have no such protections. It's hard to think of many more examples like doctors; lawyers, for example, have definitely not constrained their own supply and it's debatable how lucrative the profession as a whole really is, despite still having somewhat of an 'elite' connotation.