Only one person is needed to do it, and so one volunteer steps forward to do it. The deal made is that he'll dig the well in exchange for a larger claim to resources than everyone else.

Hello - the premise is wrong... no barter nor trade is whatever fashion. And for people to grasp that you need new non darwinian metaphysics to educate people about objective reality. This is the most daunting task and speaking of anything else is like placing the cart before the horse. The change must emanate from the Mind first.

I agree that everything belong to Earth, there is no way to quantify this. Value such as time is subjective. Money cannot fix that.