Rephrasing your argument slightly: "of course the government can't pay only $30. They need to pay $30 for the trash can, and $49,970 for unaccountable value des

Rephrasing your argument slightly: "of course the government can't pay only $30. They need to pay $30 for the trash can, and $49,970 for unaccountable value destruction!" Keeping people employed for no positive economic benefit is literally tantamount to lightning money on fire. You are paying people who would otherwise be creating value elsewhere _not_ to create that value and instead play a useless role intermediating in garbage can manufacture. They would still be buying groceries and burning gas in that productive job, but the difference is that they would also be creating something useful for society.