The arts have a place in society. Tackling real problems like hunger or health do too, arguably more so - they create the space for society to tolerate, if not enjoy art.

But the down side is we have a huge smear of jobs that either don't really matter or only matter for the smallest of moments that exist in this middle ground. I like to think of a travel agent of yesteryear as the perfect example: someone who makes a professional experience of organising your leisure so you don't have to; using questionable industry deals. This individual does not have your consumer interests at heart, because being nice to you is not where the profit is generally. The only role they actually play is rent seeking.

Efficiency threatens the rent seeking models of right now, but at the same time leads to a Cambrian explosion of new ones.