Because conflating _need for purpose_ and _need to pay rent_ can be tricky business: they don’t always join neatly.
Happy they do for you!
I'm happy to pay a month of my wages for a year of shelter. My rent is way, way higher than that.
In essence, you're paying back not only to people who work in construction, but to ask the people who made this city so desired, over many generations. It takes much more than a month of work per renter to create all the value that you get from living in New York or San Francisco.
If all you need is literally just shelter regardless of location, there's plenty of places around the globe where you could rent a perfectly good apartment for $300 per month.
If your purpose in life is caring for the infirm or teaching, or doing dance performances, society will not compensate you meaningfully in response.
What if your purpose doesn't align with society's definition of talent? Are you worthless as a human being?
What then, abandon your true purpose because of economics? These are rules of scarcity, not of life fulfillment.
From the perspective of the nebulous and not clearly defined 'society', sure.
The real question is why do you care about its judgements?
Even if the company as a whole adds value there are lots of pockets of politically charged actions e.g. for promotions. Like are we doing anything meaningful to society by building 1 of those Google projects that gets killed in a few months?
Most are. Unfortunately, people often don't recognize the immense benefit for society that some industries offer.
> Like are we doing anything meaningful to society by building 1 of those Google projects that gets killed in a few months?
Yes. Hindsight is 20/20, and making bets is (often, not always) worth it even if some fail in the end.
Why wouldn't you want tie your identity to something like that?
Just to be clear: I have a few hobbies aside from work — I make music, DJ, paint, cook, hike sometimes. I have friends, and I'm also not a productivity maniac (I actually work in a 4 day workweek startup). But do I see my main job in the way I described above, and I wouldn't want to tie my identity to any other community or hobby. In all other aspects of my life I'm mostly just enjoying life, but at my work, I'm actively improving someone else's. When I worked in gamedev, I loved interacting with players and seeing how they enjoy my work. Now I make professional software and relish in the fact that I make other professional's work easier and more enjoyable.
May be people don't need other identities, but just more fulfilling jobs.