Economists like Friedrich Hayek have shown that the amount of money you can make from any endeavor is a direct indication of the value that society as a whole d

Economists like Friedrich Hayek have shown that the amount of money you can make from any endeavor is a direct indication of the value that society as a whole derives from that endeavor. Thus, if your work doesn't get you rich, it's because society doesn't value your contribution as much as the "rich-making" one. (that's not to say that society doesn't value the "poor" one, but that it doesn't value your marginal addition to the field, as much) there are some hidden assumptions there, particularly surrounding externalities. But I think that those only affect edge cases and on the whole, still allow us to do relative comparisons.