Fair enough. I've never worked at Goldman or anything, and I know people personally who do quant stuff for a living with math/physics degrees. It's been no surp

Fair enough. I've never worked at Goldman or anything, and I know people personally who do quant stuff for a living with math/physics degrees. It's been no surprise to me that trying to explain to them why rising economic inequality is a bad thing is like talking to a brick wall. As Upton Sinclair put it, "It's very difficult to explain something to a man whose paycheck depends on him not understanding it." This quote is quite apropos, as the very thing that has allowed the proliferation of jobs in finance is the middle class largely not being in control of their financial destiny: all the money is floating (or perhaps being sucked) up. So I need to add another qualification: doing such a job is similarly low on the totem pole in terms of societal good. The goal isnt to provide a good or service as such, only to make more money (whether for the managers or their shareholders, who are, again, largely affluent to begin with.)