"Aside: should the guys who drive an armored car that carries millions of dollars in bonds get paid more than the guys that drive an armored car that only carri

"Aside: should the guys who drive an armored car that carries millions of dollars in bonds get paid more than the guys that drive an armored car that only carries thousands of dollars in cash? Does the amount of money handled change the difficult of the work?" Potentially yes. I disagree that a person should be paid by the difficulty of their work. Who decides that? One job might be more difficult to one person than another. I think programming is pretty easy, and construction work is a lot of effort - should I get paid less for programming than a construction worker? So what SHOULD one's pay be based on? The value of their labor - the value their labor provides. This is very similar to how businesses work, which is why is it sound from a game theoretic sense. Businesses (typically) charge an amount that is based on what their product is worth. You buy the item because it provides more value than the cost of giving them that money. This way, both the business is incented to charge somewhere around that amount (because they get value from the sale) and the consumer gets value as well (cost - value to them).