[acon]

Yes, but how do we decide how much society benefits from what you do? The military and police, keeping the mob rule at bay may be a great benefit, since it protects the rest of society and gives it the opportunity to invent and build things. Teaching people, healing people, motivating people. How should we value and reward all these things?

[anamax]

Paying for benefits and costs are both wrong.

You pay the minimum to get good-enough folks but you never pay more than the benefits.

Note that there are things other than money. For example, many good-enough people prefer teaching 1st grade to driving a garbage truck.

[Herring]

The way it works, ideally, is there's competition & people vote with their dollars according to how they like the benefits & the prices.

[acon]

If something is very beneficial, but in great supply the price tends to be low, like clean water in Sweden, it will be very cheap, so I don't think somethings price on the market is enough to decide how much benefit it has. Somethings which are of great benefit to us, like air we can breath, are even free.