[amelius]

I'd maybe agree with your points, except the last point: if these traders keep all/most smart people from the job market, then even your dollars would not make a difference. Of course this is overblown but it is similar to the concern that "all of our smart people are trying to make people click ads".

[darawk]

I think the way to think about it is that this "make people click on ads" problem needs to be solved. Just like this "value assets efficiently" problem needs to be solved. And if you can contribute to solving either problem more efficiently, that frees up the next smartest person to do something more directly productive.

[amelius]

No, because how do you solve a problem better than with one smart person? The answer is with two smart people.

And from there you get an endless race using more smart people to solve pointless problems.

[darawk]

Sure, but you can only solve these problems so well. They are of finite complexity.