There really does need to be someone in the middle for a variety of reasons.
1) The buyer is trying to buy at a different point in time than the seller wants to sell. Someone has to carry risk when supply and demand are mismatched on time.
2) Turnip pie maker REALLY WANTS some turnips. Turnip farmer is growing them cheaply this quarter. Clearly profits should be realized, but by who? It depends not just on this turnip pie maker and this turnip farmer, but on the entire market, which a farmer and piemaker aren't equipped to see. In fact, a given trader isn't able to see it either, but the market in aggregate serves as a price discovery mechanism.
(All this said, do not let people convince you that high pay is evidence of high contributions to society. They will try to convince you of this. FC will try to convince you of this. High pay does imply high value. But it is not evidence.)
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