It should be very clear from a cursory walk through life that peoples' compensation is on the whole not directly correlated with their cerebral work or their ph

It should be very clear from a cursory walk through life that peoples' compensation is on the whole not directly correlated with their cerebral work or their physical labor. Compensation is tied more to the generation of "value," which is vague, and which can be generated using different types and amounts of effort. There are many types of value that can be produced using automation and skill instead of hard labor. This does not diminish the value. So, don't feel bad asking for $XXX,000, especially if that is the range for your profession, in your geolocale. That's that the market has decided this labor is worth, because of the type of value it creates. Do the research on the job market, and if you have valuable skills, exploit them, for fair compensation.