Skimmers

I apologize to lifting Atrios's post in its entirety, but it is brief enough that summarizing it would just be the same thing.

The Skimmer Economy
Some day I hope more people realize that large segments of our economy don't actually do anything (health insurance, much of finance/real estate), they simply position themselves in the middle of transactions and take their cut. That isn't to say there are no transactions which legitimately require skilled middlemen, or that there is no legitimate function for the finance and banking industries, but to a great degree the skimmers just don't do anything productive at all. Except take our money.

I agree 900%. I wish that people would understand this. That people get rich doing this is seen as validation of the profession, or of their skill, but the odds are that some people are going to get lucky in this field while doing little skillful and contributing nothing to society. That is why I have no problem saying nationalize health care as insurance companies are useless middlemen. Worse then useless they are harmful. As are many positions in the banking industry. All they do is move paper around and think of more and more ludicrous ways to do that while attempting to devalue the real to boost the fake, making or societal priorities take a backseat to fantasy in the process.