we use people as machines to move stuff around and make new stuff. humans are the only creatures that have to pay to live on this planet, if they don't pay, they can't have food/shelter/etc.
With the context that "payment" is a way to make labor fungible and labor is expenditure of calories, every creature has to pay to live.
Humans probably spend fewer calories on survival (with better results) and more calories on pleasure than any other species. This is partly thanks to society.
So humans probably "pay" the least of any species just to exist.
> more calories on pleasure than any other species
That’s true we aren’t cheap on the pleasure calories, on the other hands most mammals seems to include pleasure in hunting or building their shelter or other activities. Think to dolphins, Wolfe, or rabbits. We humans have created many pleasant activities to forget our workday -which is not a pleasure for most-, while the lion enjoy its nap before an exiting hunt tonight with fellows.
"People know the part I'm playing." --"Just a Gigalo" lyrics
And people use most anything in that capacity, Rule #42 is not a theorem, after all.
While the callously selfish oppressive monsters don't care how their victims feel, so long as they get their pleasure. Greed for money and sex are really the same kind of selfish vice. And callousness to the misery of others and heartlessly disrespecting a person's human right to choose what we do with whom they will, are two of the primary drivers of unhappiness upon our Earth today.
Compassion is a balm for all such vices, but we must choose to learn the truth of its importance and then choose to manifest it in our ideals, attitudes, and behaviors. It, like all things human, is within our power, both individually and collectively, but, first, we must give a sh_t.
Humans probably spend fewer calories on survival (with better results) and more calories on pleasure than any other species. This is partly thanks to society.
So humans probably "pay" the least of any species just to exist.