I work for a small, non-VC funded, company where I contribute to products that have the potential to help people live longer, healthier lives. And I get paid pretty terribly compared to the COL of my area and compared to what I could make in other industries.
It seems the vast majority of jobs we deem to “make the world a better place”, pay not great. Teachers, social workers, scientists, healthcare workers outside doc/nurse, non-profit work, etc.
Give society what they want. They want to live in a bubble of misinformation, good for them. They want to be angry and incited into violence, good for them.
From where I’m sitting, if I help people live longer, I’m shooting myself in the foot. I can barely afford a crappy condo, currently. If I have kids, their lives will be worse because I had some weird need to care about the mission of my work.
If YOU think people need to work on problems and for companies that make the world a better place, then you should be working on how to incentivize working on these problems and disincentivizing working in companies that “make the world worse.” You’re going to have to figure out how to get teachers paid as much as a banker, I wish you the best of luck.