I agree with you that it is not useful to generalise. It's impossible to put an objective value on individual efforts but if people want jobs, unless they are all going to be employed by the State, they either have to rely on private enterprise to employ them or start their own businesses and all the uncertainty and lack of monetary security that entails. Private enterprises need employees in order to grow, which frees the business owner 's time for strategic planning and decision-making.
The bigger risks and sacrifices of being a business owner requires compensation in the form of a decent profit after all overheads (including employee salaries) and expenses are paid - though often there are losses for the business owner in at least the first year and cash flow is precarious for a while and any profits after that are usually re-invested in improving the business to generate profits in later years, while the business owner takes just enough to live on.
A business owner has to do a balancing act of having enough employees to deliver goods and services as required so they don't lose customers to competitors but not becoming over-staffed and unable to generate sufficient sales to pay employees and utility bills, rates, suppliers etc. And employees have their own personal issues, which means they could not turn up for work at a crucial time for the business, and the responsibility to manage resources lies with the business owner and can cause sleepless nights, and the decision to lay off employees - human beings with lives and families relying on their wage - lies with the business owner. And the difficult decisions to cut some less productive workers in order to save the jobs of the rest of the workers lies with the business owner. Not fun.
Hopefully, with the help of accountants, the strategic business planning and tax planning will reap bigger rewards for the business owner later.
