What do you say about a society where economics isn’t for human beings anymore? A mother who raises intelligent and virtuous children, who runs a busy household and leads her community isn’t “working” because she earns $0. She’s economically useless. Meanwhile, a frivolous banker gambling on asset prices can make millions. Yet remove mothers and fathers and civilization collapses. Remove the banker and we’d be better off.

Ivan Illich said that in the Middle Ages, the Church struggled to make sense of atheists who were visibly saintly, atheists who behaved more like Christ than many Christians. In the same way, modern economics can’t make sense of a highly productive person who isn’t making money.

A great deal of what makes a person admirable, productive, lovable and strong pays nothing at all. Don’t let a sick market logic judge whether you’re valuable.