This seems more or less like a straw man of people who might loosely call themselves "anti-finance". I think most people support and understand the "idea" of finance but not the implementation.
One weak point of this article is that it repeats the common pro-finance position that financiers deserve to be wealthy because they take on "risk". However, in this day and age we hardly ever let large companies suffer the consequences of a bad investment (or brazen illegal activity).
So, if we think bailouts and the like are necessary to prevent society from collapsing, recognizing the finance industry as a crucial component of our economy, what's the reason for allowing financiers to keep skimming off the top when they're allowed to burden taxpayers with all the risk?
Finance is important, and sure, moving money around is hard. But so is making things. I'd like to see people who make things and people who move money to earn income on about the same order of magnitude. I'd also like to see companies held accountable when they commit crimes.
(also--dismissing viewpoints you disagree with for being too "meta-contrarian" is bad form imo. Anyone who has criticisms of the way things are is just doing it to be cool? I'm going to call this way of arguing "meta-meta-contrarian")
One weak point of this article is that it repeats the common pro-finance position that financiers deserve to be wealthy because they take on "risk". However, in this day and age we hardly ever let large companies suffer the consequences of a bad investment (or brazen illegal activity).
So, if we think bailouts and the like are necessary to prevent society from collapsing, recognizing the finance industry as a crucial component of our economy, what's the reason for allowing financiers to keep skimming off the top when they're allowed to burden taxpayers with all the risk?
Finance is important, and sure, moving money around is hard. But so is making things. I'd like to see people who make things and people who move money to earn income on about the same order of magnitude. I'd also like to see companies held accountable when they commit crimes.
(also--dismissing viewpoints you disagree with for being too "meta-contrarian" is bad form imo. Anyone who has criticisms of the way things are is just doing it to be cool? I'm going to call this way of arguing "meta-meta-contrarian")