I suppose I can exempt my statement by saying "within the confines of the economic and political landscape, people are hired and paid as a mutually beneficial exchange". That way we escape the larger question of whether the exchange is actually enough to sustain people.
But yeah, there's a more interesting and unnerving point to be discussed there. My assumption is that you're talking about various indirect subsidies that keep people above water (even things like subsidizing roads at the expense of non-drivers so people can drive to work). I largely agree, but I'd be curious if you're talking about something deeper than that?
It's pretty much just that. I've read some pretty intense thought-provoking books recently, "Marx's Inferno" in particular, which I don't feel comfortable paraphrasing, which make the rabbit hole seem way deeper. However, I was mostly thinking of just that.
I don't think this is really true, and although a useful myth for social cohesion, it ends up being the source of all sorts of problems.