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Not all ideas can or should be taught in (elite) colleges. The framework to analyze any idea should be and generally is taught at colleges.

Repackaging and selling things is foundational to creating value. The insurance industry is perhaps the quintessential example. They create no direct expected value, and yet they create societal benefit by creating risk-adjusted expected value.

What is manufacturing but repackaging?

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Insurance creates value, and so do banks. The problem really begins when the banks try to get more revenue than the value they can possibly generate. That's when it goes into bubbles and finally breaks. Insurance has its risks also, but the insurance system doesn't crash every couple years from itself (major natural events, terrorist attacks etc not taken into account).

Fair enough, but culture matters. When you're surrounded by a culture of people who glorify rent-seeking jobs like finance and lawyering, "building stuff" tends to be regarded as lower-status and as such gets less of the top talent, even though it's the most important thing.

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