i think our society is making us work in a similar way that a bodybuilder works out: it’s just about making [these muscles / that business] grow, even though they serve no purpose and could just as well just not exist, and things would be equally fine, but for whatever reason, we’ve made it a beauty ideal that these things are as big as possible, so we must max them! every! single! day!

TBH I think the world would be more fine, not equally fine, if we didn't have so much bullshit economic activity. Climate change probably wouldn't exist at all, or only barely.

"Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals."
-Albert Einstein via azquotes.com

We are trading trading hidden metrics for observable ones.

Observable metrics are the visible ones others can easily judge: annual salary, job title, car value, house size. Hidden metrics are the ones that are harder to see but more closely tied to day-to-day well-being: quality of relationships, free time, peace of mind, health, and length of commute.

The irony here is that we might trade happiness for better salary in hopes of it buying us happiness.

So, people work for the sake of working? Are you saying these companies exist without justification?

The purpose they serve is the accumulation of wealth for the already wealthy