> What generates more value - a good thought that can steer a product or a company in a better direction, or a pile of clean dishes?
The dish, obviously. A company (or a product) is an abstract concept that is largely meaningless without workers to actually provide value people want to pay for.
> Value is disconnected to the difficulty involved in producing it.
Human labor is the source of all value. If you're handing over money, it's because you're paying someone for the work they've done in some way.
> In fact, this is a key part of the free market. Precisely because it's easy for people who can do your job to produce a ton of value and hard for dishwashers to do the same, the market tries to push as many people as possible away from dishwashing and towards whatever it is that you do.
Yes, it's a lovely fantasy—but the real world doesn't work like that. The reason why I'm paid a lot isn't because I produce "value", it's because I'm really good at convincing rich people to pay me. The "free market" is just sucking off rich people with bad taste.
> Where do you get this idea?
Read Capital and get back to me. We need to open the schools!