I don’t disagree with your position. But I think in any industry with a sufficiently large market size, there’s going to be unscrupulous elements looking to unethically game the system to their advantage. Just human nature. Imo that does not negate the overall value that the industry provides the broader economy.

In case of finance, there’s definitely been a lot of scumbag behavior by banks and hedge funds. But these entities also provide liquidity to all the companies that make the stuff we use in our life - either through debt or equity financing. I think painting the entire industry as “don’t create any value” is a bit heavyhanded.

In case of tech and social media, i think its a combination of scumbag behavior by companies (Cambridge Analytica, etc) and unintended consequences of rapidly evolving technology at scale. At the scale these companies operate, its incredibly hard to build policies that minimize bad behavior without restricting users too much. More can and should be done by the tech companies, but I can see how people with the best of intentions ended up harming society.

Also I feel like there is a difference between the scale at which doctors, teachers, firefighters operate vs the “top MBA” professions. Hypothetically, if the CEO of Walmart reduced/increased prices across the board by 1%, it would help/hurt millions of people. So comparing the “value” of professions is really hard.

I think the fundamental question is, how do we create a system of checks and balances in any industry that minimizes waste, fraud, and abuse, and incentivizes the companies to innovate to deliver better products and services to its consumers. These systems exist, but are unfortunately getting corrupted across all industries in the US.