I'm in California and I had a water leak on the property that cost me $500 on my water bill. My water provider offered a credit for the overage if I can prove that I fixed it. A local plumber charged me $400, provided me with the exact paperwork to send in, and I got a $500 credit.

What a wild economy. I have no complaints, I understand why it works that way. And all my plumber had to do was smile, provide a bit of customer service, and repair one pipe.

Plumbers produce real value, i.e. the total value of the world is higher after they finish their work. This cannot be said for lawyers.

Or most software developers.

Software developers make the world a better place.

Unfortunately, most of they ways in which they do so were already done in the 70s. It's just repeating that work in more modern languages / stacks.

Some software developers make the world a better place. Many produce software that ultimately not that useful, and in the worst case scenario, actively harmful to society. Is the world a better place because of Apple, Amazon, or Google? Eh, you can make an argument either way. Is it a better place because of Facebook or Twitter? Unambiguously no.

That may be true, but the same could also be said about plumbing.

That's an interesting question.

Some software is valuable according to this definition, e.g. Google search. Some is not, e.g. Google ad algorithms.

Software is an enabler. It depends what it's enabling.

Would be interesting to know the proportions.

To clarify a piece of what you've said, devs working on Google ad algorithms are valuable to companies who are advertising. Your point is a higher level one that what these companies are buying from Google isn't of net value to society overall, even if it is of value to them.

Google search may be useful in the present time it is used, but Google logs people’s searches and effectively spies on the most personal thoughts and ideas people have. This could prove to be dangerous to those that are considered to be outside of mainstream society, etc.

> Where I live plumbers make more than an average software engineer

But the plumbers all use Google and have iPhones... But they aren't getting any stock from the companies making these as part of their comp package.

What's a plumber do with 5 trucks?? You can't drive more than one, right?!

A plumber with five trucks isn't so much a plumber anymore as a business owner employing five other plumbers.

And the reality of that is almost certainly not as rosy as you are being led to believe.