I think this statement concisely embeds the premise that might be the root cause of much of the problem.
That premise is "For something to have worth, someone has to be willing to pay for it".
That is only true for the narrowest definition of worth. If worth is reduced to a property to facilitate trade and nothing else then it works.
Worth can also carry a sense of non-tradable value, It can be meaningful. You can do something because you like doing it and someone else could be glad you were doing it. Requiring a financial transaction to turn that goodwill into self esteem seems to be a fundamental problem with our society.
