[keiferski]

This isn’t really a good angle to critique finance IMO, because it is indeed a necessary part of the modern economy.

A better angle is how finance tends to acquire a ton of smart young people that could/would otherwise be doing work that has more benefits to society. It’s hard to blame the individual here, because the salaries are orders of magnitude larger in finance vs. say, aerospace engineering. Would I turn down $700k at a hedge fund to earn $90k at a science lab? Probably not, unless I was already independently wealthy.

[francisofascii]

"it's all just numbers really. Just changing what you're adding up. And, to speak freely, the money here is considerably more attractive." - Peter Sullivan in the movie Margin Call

[Rzor]

I ended up rewatching that movie more than ten times a few months ago after I got stuck with a capped internet connection and not much to do online. It's one of those films where there isn't a single fucking scene wasted: everything plays out a little over a day, and the character dynamics and dialogue feel genuinely tight. Lots of great characters overall, but Jeremy Irons's John Tuld is just stellar in terms of presence and delivery.

[keiferski]

It really is a perfect movie, in the sense of having precisely the right parts and nothing else.

[DontchaKnowit]

How is that not a restatement of what OP said?