Actually, I think that many people value businesses based on how many jobs they create, not how much wealth they create. This is where you get misguided attempts to "create jobs" by the government by doing things analogous to employing people to dig holes and fill them in again.
Galbraith has an excellent explanation of why paying poor jobless to do anything is a good idea if unemployment is or threatens to run rampant -- basically, it is an inflation-proof way to keep money flowing into the economy by stimulating spending, because poor people don't hold on to their money, they spend it in their communities.. which helps to create jobs and keep demand up
You mean like welfare? We have that. Or TVA, CCC, and "shovel ready construction projects"? The rock thing was not a proposal, it was just an academic example to show that the value of stimulus is not only found in the government buying something from recipients, it is also found in the recipient's private spending.
