I agree. I’m retired. My working life was approximately bookended with two radically different “social value” jobs: turf farm labourer and “town man” (technically, public works foreman, but that doesn’t do justice to the reality of being the only employee).

In the first, I was helping to grow grass for people too lazy to put in their own lawns. I have difficulty imagining a less useful industry. For all the damage caused by the petroleum industry, we at least get energy and materials in exchange. Lawns? Give me a break.

In the last, I kept the water safe to drink, the sewage safe to return to the environment, the garbage off the street and properly landfilled, and the infrastructure in good repair.

When I look back at all the other jobs I did, only working for an ambulance manufacturer comes even close to having the same social value as that town man job. Most of the rest could easily have been wiped from the face of the earth and the net effect would be an improved society.