You can't ask, "What are people for?" because any consideration that humans are supposed to be useful to a place (nature, Earth, homestead, etc) leads to realizing that our economic models are all exactly backward (extraction rather than contribution). Those closest to the contribution point would require everyone else to be assisting them. Closest to the land, closest to thinking, closest to teaching the children to contribute, etc. Those furthest away from the contribution point should be begging to help the rest of us, not collecting the benefits of everyone's labor and sending it into the aether.