There are clearly jobs that require high talent and have a shortage of labour that pushes up salaries. This includes things that require mathematical talent, li

There are clearly jobs that require high talent and have a shortage of labour that pushes up salaries. This includes things that require mathematical talent, like quantitative finance, but it also includes skills like motivational speaking or playing sports to a very high level. However, I think most jobs are ones that, frankly, anyone could do if given the opportunity and a bit of training, but access to these jobs is controlled via gateways such as fancy schools, culture, family connections, your accent, etc. There's a kind of mediocre upper-middle class filling seats at large organizations but not really doing much. These are sometimes referred to as bullshit jobs. But this is just speculation... I would like to see some data around it. The number of people doing start-ups is a blip. This is not how most people accumulate wealth.