"activities that were worthless if not destructive from a social point of view." Although I do actually like Paul Krugman's writings, and although I do have an

"activities that were worthless if not destructive from a social point of view." Although I do actually like Paul Krugman's writings, and although I do have an opinion about the financial industry, whoever crowned Krugman "social evaluator" of the world? I mean, who is to say Krugman writing stuff on the internet, winning a fake Nobel for a (basically fake) discipline, and scribbling formulas on blackboards is constructive from a social point of view? I know people who would dispute that. In fact, let's not even go into this question for we might find out ugly things about our societies. If I were to put my own "social evaluator" hat on, I'd throw half the stuff I see on TV commercials out. [EDIT: In fact, I might throw the TV and all the associated junk itself out.] Economist Krugman may not like the result on the employment rate when we really introduce this sort of criterion into capitalism. I mean, seriously, who in our society really makes truly valuable or "constructive" stuff, from a social point of view. Isn't a huge chunk of our population involved in making consumer junk and industrial waste? How is a marketer who tickles the basest instincts of people to make them buy stuff they don't need by working harder at jobs they hate any better than a guy who spends his day doing HFT?