I realized that there's a frequent uproar against HFT, so I assume people here are pretty tired of it and are not willing to discuss it/have their minds made up about it already. That's why I won't go rhetoric.

edit: I guess, I did though.

I can't help to reply to the adwords question - although you can argue that advertising/marketing is soulless, at least it creates real world value. Someone makes a product, someone else buys it. Exchange of goods happens.

Derivatives are uncontrallable in the my humble opinion. Especially if regulated by uber greedy people. And it makes me sad sad when I see the highest skilled people go and put their talent in something that is pretty much useless, apart from making a few, selected people even richer than they are. But I guess, whatever pays the bills.

But that's not why I made my comment. I made my comment, because what I find even more sad, is people going numb to injustice and admiring this situation and the people who are making it possible.