I have wondered about that, too.

My dad was a corporate manager. I remember being a little baffled when he tried to explain "doing business" as he and his peers did it, at their level. I couldn't quite grasp the VALUE of a bunch of suited guys signing papers and smoking congratulatory cigars and getting mounds of money for that... while some guy busting his butt to actually MAKE whatever was in those contracts was struggling to feed his family...