@susannah I think this observation is a key insight for anyone wanting to understand what the economy is about. There is lots of work to be done, but typically only the people who are directly or indirectly serving or protecting the interests of the powerful can get paid to work and therefore survive as proletarians. Powerful people create the money supply and the rules of the society, and so this is a completely logical outcome. Another way of putting it is that the interests of Capital are not necessarily always the same as the interests of people.