> I could have it both ways. I could lend the dollar to A, and get paid back a decade later with interest. Now I have (more than) a dollar after the decade. But that dollar is still worth 1/2000 of the year's output, so I also got paid for everyone else's gains, even when I didn't leave them the resources...
So company A paid you back your original nominal investment, which is already worth more than it was at the start, plus interest, which means that whatever they did produced a better-than-average return for them to be able to afford to repay the loan. You did something even better than just hold your money and wait without interfering—you contributed to raising the average rate of return. Resources (others' savings, as well as your own funds) were put to better use due to your wise choice of investment. Ergo, you get a higher reward than those who just passively waited for the economy to improve.
So company A paid you back your original nominal investment, which is already worth more than it was at the start, plus interest, which means that whatever they did produced a better-than-average return for them to be able to afford to repay the loan. You did something even better than just hold your money and wait without interfering—you contributed to raising the average rate of return. Resources (others' savings, as well as your own funds) were put to better use due to your wise choice of investment. Ergo, you get a higher reward than those who just passively waited for the economy to improve.