[gpanders]

> The idea that income should be derived from value is incredibly naive.

On what other basis do you propose it be derived?

Non-revenue generating roles provide value by allowing the revenue-generating roles to generate revenue. This is the basic concept of specialization. You could likely even take a stab at quantifying this: time spent freeing up revenue-generating roles to generate revenue combined with some kind of supply-and-demand factor.

For example, if I'm a one-man widget shop, hiring a janitor to sweep the floors for me means I can spend that time generating more widgets instead of sweeping floors. The value provided by that janitor is proportional to the additional revenue I generated from those extra widgets, scaled by the large supply of janitors in the labor market.

The idea that income should be derived from value is only naive if you take a fixed view of "value == revenue". No doubt some middle managers have this view, but that's a sign of ignorance and incompetence, not a flaw in the underlying theory itself.