They are excellent questions. Trading, economies were meant to serve peoples' wants and needs, but people serve "the economy", with no thought given to what th

They are excellent questions. Trading, economies were meant to serve peoples' wants and needs, but people serve "the economy", with no thought given to what the actual quality of working peoples' lives are like. As if the economy is the important thing, not human lives. There is extreme attention on "economic efficiency", no attention at all on the quality of the lives involved. We don't know where we're going, don't care whether the journey is pleasant or not, but focus on getting there as quickly/cheaply as possible. I guess that's easier to measure. Also, modern economies rely on there being a pool of unemployed. If everyone could do 1, 2 or 3 part-time jobs, balanced how they like it, that would mess up the system. Anyway, the whole thing is designed to make the rich richer, whether underlings enjoy that process is not really relevant.