It seems that in many cases half of the working world is working to create problems for the other half to solve, this in turning creating problems that the first half can solve. While there's a lot of activity in this strategy, it's hardly productive. One example: Two of the biggest American companies are in the business of selling junk food and cholesterol lowering drugs respectively. Effectively, they cancel each other out.
In my career, I spent a lot of time and was paid to solve problems that I don't really think very many people cared about (maybe 50-100, optimistically, probably closer to 5, realistically) and which I can not really see having much of any impact on the world at large. Not having to turn a profit makes it possible to focus on nonprofit contributions which otherwise would go unfulfilled. My compensation is now incidental to what I'm doing rather than the driving reason. I'm paid far less doing what I do as a "retiree", but I think I have a much larger and also positive influence in my current (a)vocation.