[dmix]

> Another swath of them are working on getting people to click on ads for Facebook and Google.

Which finances Google's driverless car efforts and an untold other amount of businesses (like gmail). Plus the salaries of thousands of developers and the myriad of other people who work for Google, and the subindustries it supports (bus drivers, chefs, real estate, etc). Just because their specific job isn't world-changing doesn't mean it has no positive effect on the world.

Silicon Valley has benefited greatly from the ad industry which is why the popularity of this type of complaint bothers me.

Same with Goldman. They do contribute to the world by facilitating commerce. Although they likely contribute far less to the world than SV developers since they siphon so much off the top for ultimately marginal longterm ROI. They also ultimately wouldn't make so much money unless they did provide some value to the economy beyond exploitation of byzantine financial systems.

[TheLarch]

I grant that Google is more of a social good than Facebook.

Your claim that Goldman has contributed is a debated topic. Paul Krugman favorably mentioned a study that purports to demonstrate that Wall Street's endeavors are largely unproductive. I can't find it now unfortunately.