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I wouldn't think of it that way at all. Your work helps support you and your family, and your coworkers and their families! Kids get to go to school, parents get to provide nice homes for them, and non-kid folks get to have nice lives, all because of your work. Sometimes, even if the work is prosaic, it enables wonderful lives for the workers.

If you are interested in it, I would highly recommend looking at working with National Laboratories, or companies that work with or manage National Labs. FFRDCs are another great place to look https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federally_funded_research_and_...

Be prepared to take a salary hit, but the work can be really rewarding (if you end up in the right place).