@Merc @theorytoe
And yet… Coal-mining industry is loss-making in every country I can think of: Russia, Poland, UK: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2130231-uk-government-subsidises-coal-sector-with-356-million-a-year/
Farmers too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy
A 2021 study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization found $540 billion was given to farmers every year between 2013 and 2018 in global subsidies.

Governments keep sponsoring this bunch of botanists-speleologists! They've been leeching off taxes paid by honest crypto-investors and OnlyFans models for years!

@Merc @theorytoe
On a serious note though, you might argue that farmers and coal-miners are at least self-sustainable — but they aren't! What are they going to eat, coal? Farmers aren't any better on a closer look — they aren't using "grandpa tools" anymore: with limited amount of farmlands and billions of people they have to feed, they can only stay productive if they use modern equipment — that's where engineers, mathematicians and software developers come it.

@Merc @theorytoe
But otherwise — yeah, sure, people are just scamming each other for money that you can't buy shit with anymore, but somehow modern equipment enables us to do it in a way that we manage to avoid famine and other catastrophic things.
Trading exchanges used to be helpful in determining market value of goods — but they no longer are and are often used for speculative purposes and cryptocurrency exchange is of course the epitome of that.

@Merc @theorytoe
Yeah, farmers might be way better at it than Windows sysadmins… Or not — on the surface, they might posses a more useful skillset, but would they be able to put up a good fight for long enough if their John Deere shit suddenly breaks down, if there is no fuel, no electricity, no fertilisers? I'm honestly not sure — they would probably still have to re-learn a lot, same as those with "useless" professions 🤷

@Merc @theorytoe
No, I get what you mean of course, I'm just exaggerating a bit for funsies 😄