[unethical_ban]

I think that's getting a little high minded for the purpose of the OP's question. I think it's fair to interpret the question as "Is there a good faith argument that HFT is beneficial to markets in a way that also benefits everyday citizens? Are there positive downstream effects? Is the intent of HFT strictly selfish?"

I don't think your comparison to academia holds up there.

[traK6Dcm]

Yeah, fair enough. The truth is that I'm just a little frustrated by people touting the horn of "making the world a better place" when in reality most end up doing nothing of the sort but then criticize people working in Finance :)