You don’t.
In the U.S., GDP is in the trillions of dollars. But note that while change in GDP represents economic growth (actually a rough approximation since it doesn’t include non-market production, e.g. house-spouse production, nor black market, nor things like product improvements–e.g. a $1,000 computer today is more powerful than a $1,000 ten years ago–IIRC), GDP itself is the value of all the goods and services produced in a country each year. So you could say that trillions of dollars of value is produced in the U.S. each year.
Lottery winner: All of her personal fortune existed before hitting the winning numbers. It just belonged to somebody else, then they bought their tickets and the state held it for a bit, then our lucky winner won.
CEO: Depends. A CEO’s pay is supposed to represent her mariginal contribution to the firm. Unfortunately, it seems lately that some CEO pay schemes have been practiced that aren’t cricket. Ken Lay would be the archetypal example. What is supposed to happen is that while labor does the actual wrench (or spanner in your case?) turning, management organizes and directs their efforts so that they produce more than they would as uncoordinated individuals. Management also is responsible for passing along information in each direction, since the CEO herself couldn’t possible have productive meetings with all the individuals employed at a firm. The CEO in turn, should choose the overall direction of the firm, do large scale mgt., and inspire everyone involved.
Let me give you an example. Suppose that the Roman soldier was no better at individual combat than a Gaul. Then, completely uncoordinated, they should be evenly matched. But the Romans had the Centurian, the world’s first NCO. He coordinates the efforts of the hundred or so men under his command. If the Gauls don’t have a comparable NCO, then century against century (i.e. century = 100 soldiers, hence “Centurian”), the Romans will win. Suppose that the Gauls have effective NCOs, but no generalship, whereas the Romans do. Then army against army, the Romans win. You see, each level of “production” produces value: the soldiers just fight & march, the Centurians fight & march & coordinate, the general coordinates & plans & inspires.
In that example, Ken Lay would be an incompetent Roman general. His army won in spite of him, until he got them into more than they could handle–so he got on his horse and rode off. A CEO like Lee Iococca (sp?), let’s say, might be like Scipio Africanus, he took a loser army and turned it into a top-notch operation.
In theory, a CEO’s pay represents how good of a general she is. In the current climate, who can say?
Visionary inventor: Depends. Consider the Greek who thought up a steam engine. He created no value because he didn’t develop it. Consider instead Thomas Edison & his light bulb. I’d say he created alot of value, since he made it known. But the people who took over large scale manufacturing of the bulb created quite a bit of value, too. An invention that goes nowhere is useless; the act of making it available to the masses is also very valuable. Consider a musician who writes the world’s best song. If he dies unknown in a beautiful Welsh city, his song was in effect nearly worthless. But Britney Spears’ music is worth a lot, even though history may forget her, because millions listen to and enjoy them–the record companies who produced and distributed her music have created value as well.
They are. They’re just going somewhere else, even if it is to pay a gov’t. clerk somewhere.
Incidently, value is often created from nothing. One good example is Consumer Surplus. Suppose I’m willing to pay $5 for a pint, but the price is only $3 because of the overall market conditions. Then that extra $2 is consumer surplus, and it is real value to me. Not necessarily wealth, but certainly value–it should not be ignored. That’s one reason why trade barriers are bad–they take perfectly good human welfare and throw it away, it goes nowhere becaues, like consumer surplus, it is created through the act of trading. It is intangible but real.