[ClumsyPilot]

> Surely people engaging in unproductive labour is a net loss to the economy?

You mean unproductive labour like running a casino, producing tobacco, building superyachts, etc?

> In 2017, clothing worth £28.6 million was incinerated by Burberry to maintain their brand’s exclusivity.

There is a term, "Real Economy". playing on the stock market is not real economy, producing steel is. In the last 30 years, a huge change took place - we had something called Financialization, now the 'real economy' is only a small fraction of actually economy, and is dwarfed by financial markets and various bullshit.