Isaac Asimov’s mystery stories often begin with a guest of the Black Widowers being asked, “How do you justify your existence?” On a darker note, George Bernard Shaw said of the concept of eugenics, “If you can’t justify your existence, if you’re not pulling your weight in the social boat, if you’re not producing as much as you consume or perhaps a little more, then, clearly, we cannot use the organizations of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can’t be of very much use to yourself.”

The application of this concept to (for example) disabled human beings is obviously repulsive, but corporate persons and similar supply chain entities that think they should be paid to exist rather than deliver value are another matter. The rest of the supply chain, from producer to final customer, can't afford to carry them.

 …