The "economy" is just a word for how a group of people decide to allocate labor and resources. How to do this fairly and effectively is a subject of debate - whether its free markets, central planning, pillaging, piracy, or anarchy, I don't think there's any version of it where you aren't doing some kind of "work" to make sure your needs are met at the end of the day. Of course the overly complicated and abstract nature of today's economy would make anyone question if the (alleged) "value created" still corresponds to "real value", and if all this complicated stuff isn't more trouble than it's worth. Growing more food and building more houses is value that everyone understands. Keeping the bond yield curve from inverting.. not so much. Still there's no immediate alternative and no obvious fix, so we have to work with what we got.