> it doesn't seem as though he created any value to anyone in the process.
Sure he did. He created value for himself by working. After all, in a pure economic sense coupon cutting is as valid work as log cutting.
Perhaps you are confused by the fact that he was working for himself? Say my current food expenses are $15 a day, so I hire that guy to shop and cook for me for $10 a day. Clearly he would be creating value for me.
Sure, but generally money is given to people when they do some sort of service for other people.
If you have a cook, you pay them to cook you food, and you got the money from some other place cause you performed some other service for someone else.
If you paid him to go shopping, thats because he was creating value for you (in saving you time) and you were paying him for it.
But this is different. Sure he is benefiting himself, but he isn't creating value for anyone else. The whole point of society to a certain extent to create a system which encourages people to help one another. This man is essentially getting food in exchange for shuffling papers around. What I don't understand is who else in society is benefiting from his paper shuffling.
